First Defiance Financial Corp. of Ohio plans to enter Michigan by acquiring the $291 million-asset Pavilion Bancorp Inc. of Adrian for $55.7 million in cash and stock.
Buying Pavilion would add 10 branches to First Defiance's 27-branch network in Ohio and Indiana.
"This acquisition allows us to expand farther north into the southeastern Michigan market, and it adds the type of communities that have been very responsive to our 'Customer First' style of banking," William J. Small, the chairman, president, and chief executive officer of the $1.5 billion-asset First Defiance, said in a press release.
The transaction, announced late Tuesday, is expected to close in the first quarter.
First Defiance also said that it would apply with federal regulators to become a bank holding company and to convert its sole banking subsidiary, First Federal Bank of the Midwest, from a thrift to a national bank.
