St. Paul-based Bremer Financial, Minnesota's second-largest bank, is being sold to Old National Bank for $1.4 billion, ending a five-year battle over Bremer's future.
Bremer and Evansville, Ind.-based Old National announced the deal Monday, which will create Minnesota's third-largest bank as measured by deposits.
However, the $1.4 billion sale price is significantly lower than previous estimates of Bremer Financial's value of about $2 billion.
The 80-year-old Bremer is the only U.S. bank that is majority owned by the Otto Bremer Trust, a charitable trust. The bank and trust have been in a five-year battle over the bank's future, with the trust pushing for a sale.
That's what we got on Monday.
Bremer has approximately 1,500 employees and 70 branch offices in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Bremer, with about $16 billion in assets, is the second-largest bank based in Minnesota, but behind Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank. Wells Fargo, a California bank formerly based here, is larger than Bremer by deposits.
Publicly traded Old National has 31 branches in Minnesota, but its largest customers are in Indiana and Illinois. Old National, which has $54 billion in assets, also has operations in Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Old National estimates that the partnership is expected to result in approximately $111 million in cost savings, which will likely result in headcount reductions.
