Advia Credit Union to buy small Illinois bank

Advia Credit Union in Parchment, Mich., has agreed to buy Golden Eagle Community Bank in Woodstock, Ill.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter. The price was not disclosed.

Golden Eagle, which opened in 2007, has $155 million in assets and 32 employees in the Illinois towns of Woodstock, Cary and Crystal Lake.

Golden Eagle branch

The $1.7 billion-asset Advia will serve more than 160,000 members and have 13 branches Illinois and southern Wisconsin, along with 19 locations in Michigan, when the deal closes.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to welcome the customers of Golden Eagle … as members of Advia,” Cheryl DeBoer, the credit union’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “We are growing our commercial-focused financial solutions, strengthening our local position in Illinois and Wisconsin, and have a well-rooted commitment to community involvement and volunteerism.”

Advia as a “strong financial institution,” Steven Finzel, Golden Eagle’s president, CEO and chief financial officer, said in the press release. With its size and resources, he added, the credit union has the “proven ability to provide competitive and innovative products to our consumer and commercial clients.”

Advia's net income for the first nine months of 2018 fell by 26% from a year earlier, to $6.9 million.

Michael Bell, a lawyer at Howard & Howard in Royal Oak, Mich., advised Advia.

“At this moment we are experiencing more deal flow between banks and credit unions than ever before,” Bell said. “In context this is a powerful statement, since 2017 was the most active year to date.”

This article originally appeared in Credit Union Journal.
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