Farmers & Merchants in Calif. to buy like-minded ag lender

Farmers & Merchants Bancorp in Lodi, Calif., has agreed to buy Bank of Rio Vista in California.

The $3.1 billion-asset company said in a press release Monday that it will pay $40.7 million for the $218 million-asset Bank of Rio Vista. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

“This is very strategic to help us expand our agricultural portfolio and to continue to ensure that farmers in that region of the state have banking resources behind them so they can be as successful as possible,” Kent Steinwert, Farmers & Merchants' president and CEO, said in an interview.

Both banks are agribusiness lenders, with many wineries, dairy farmers and fruit and vegetable farmers among their clients, Steinwert said. Farmers & Merchants has guaranteed jobs to all Bank of Rio Vista’s employees, he added.

Kent Steinwert

Bank of Rio Vista has three branches and a loan production office.

Farmers & Merchants said it expects the deal to be accretive to its 2019 earnings.

“Our customers will have access to many more products and services, together with the additional benefit of a larger lending limit, enabling us to meet all of the needs of our customers and our community,” Dave Greiner, Bank of Rio Vista's chairman and CEO, said in the release.

One Bank of Rio Vista director will join Farmers & Merchants' board. The company will also create an advisory board for the Rio Vista, Delta and River communities in central California.

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M&A Community banking Ag lending California
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