F&M will join Michigan's Citizens banking

Northwestern Financial Review, May 8, 1999

Kaukana-based F&M Bancorp. Inc. is the latest regional midsize bank to be acquired. The fourth-largest bank holding company in Wisconsin has agreed to be bought by Flint, Mich.-based Citizens Banking Corp. in a stock deal valued at $820 million.

The merger is expected to be completed by the end of the year, and will create a $7 billion company. The deal was announced on April 19.

The $2.4 billion F&M has 23 charters and more than 80 locations in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The bank's primary market is the Fox Valley region in east central Wisconsin, from Green Bay to Appleton to Oshkosh.

Citizens Banking is Michigan's third-largest holding company with assets of $4.5 billion. It has 123 sites in Michigan and suburban Chicago. Citizens plans to combine F&M's 19 Wisconsin charters into one Wisconsin bank for which the F&M name will be retained.

F&M's largest banks are F&M Bank-Northeast in Pulaski, Wis., with $320 million in assets, and the $329 million F&M Bank-Iowa Central in Marshalltown. Its smallest bank is the $31 million F&M Bank in Dundas, Minn.

F&M had previously agreed to acquire Community Bank of Elkhorn in southeastern Wisconsin, and expects that deal to close in the second quarter. Gail Janssen is chairman of F&M. Robert Vitito serves as president and CEO of Citizens Banking.