Wisconsin's F&M Buying BancSecurity of Iowa

Fast-growing F&M Bancorp of Kaukauna, Wis., announced plans Tuesday to acquire BancSecurity Corp. of Marshalltown, Iowa, for $145 million in stock.

The deal-valued at 2.5 times book value - would boost F&M's assets to $2.2 billion, from $1.6 billion. It would also give the banking company a significant presence in central Iowa, where BancSecurity's three banks operate 14 branches.

"F&M has strategically planned to expand in the Midwest, and this is an opportunity to significantly extend our franchise beyond Wisconsin," said Gail E. Janssen, F&M's chairman.

F&M ventured outside Wisconsin for the first time with its announcement this year of a deal to purchase $25 million-asset Sentry Bancorp in Dundas, Minn. The acquisition of BancSecurity, expected to close in the second quarter of 1998, would boost F&M's branch network to 82 offices in the three states.

BancSecurity, with $537 million of assets, has earned a reputation for turning around troubled banks. In 1985, the company acquired the failed Story County State Bank, and in 1988 it rescued Kellogg-Sully Bank and Trust.

Ronald E. Fenton, BancSecurity's president and chief executive officer, said the privately held bank decided to sell because "it makes us part of a large organization and it gives us publicly traded stock."

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