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Northwest Bank parent company acquires midwest MutualBank
Six months after announcing a definitive merger agreement, Northwest Bancshares is expanding westward with a $213 million acquisition of Muncie, Indiana’s MutualFirst Financial and subsidiary MutualBank.
“Despite the adversity caused by COVID-19, our team was able to successfully close and convert the merger with MutualBank this past weekend,” said Ronald J. Seiffert, chairman, president and CEO of Northwest Bancshares, in a statement.
The resulting $12.8 billion bank has 214 branch locations, including the 36 full-service offices in Indiana gained through the merger. Seiffert said the acquisition brings 348 new employees into the Northwest Bancshares workforce and more than new 70,000 households into its retail banking service.
“Indiana is an attractive market with a business friendly environment which we have targeted as part of our Mid-Atlantic and Midwest expansion plans,” Seiffert said. “MutualFirst represents a unique and sizable opportunity that is highly accretive to both Northwest’s franchise value and shareholder value.”
The merge comes with no changes to MutualFirst’s executive management team in an effort to “consistently serve the customer base with little to no disruption,” Seiffert said.
“We believe MutualFirst’s customers and employees will embrace Northwest’s culture and values and appreciate the additional products and services of a larger community bank which should also create additional growth potential,” Seiffert said.
This is the second acquisition in the last two years for the Warren County-based financial services institution, which has several branch locations in the midstate region; in March of 2019, Northwest Bancshares completed its purchase of Union Community Bank holding company Donegal Financial Services for $42.5 million.
