Wintrust Financial Corporation and Macatawa Bank Corporation Announce Plans to Merge

ROSEMONT, Ill. and HOLLAND, Mich., April 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wintrust Financial Corporation (“Wintrust”) (Nasdaq: WTFC) and Macatawa Bank Corporation (“Macatawa”) (Nasdaq: MCBC) today jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement for Wintrust to acquire Macatawa in an all-stock transaction. Macatawa is the parent company of Macatawa Bank, a Michigan state-chartered bank, which is headquartered in Holland, Michigan and operates a network of 26 full-service branches located throughout communities in Kent, Ottawa and northern Allegan counties, including Grand Rapids.

Founded in 1997, Macatawa has an exemplary history of serving its communities. As of December 31, 2023, it had approximately $2.7 billion in assets, $2.4 billion in deposits and $1.3 billion in loans. Macatawa’s approach to customer service is similar to that at each of the fifteen Wintrust Community Banks and their more than 170 banking locations. Like Wintrust, Macatawa prides itself on delivering outstanding service to both consumer and commercial clients.

Timothy S. Crane, President and CEO of Wintrust, said, “Macatawa provides an ideal platform to expand into West Michigan with a very solid bank. The bank has a strong core deposit base, exceptional asset quality, a client focused culture, and a committed leadership team. Together, we will be a formidable, community-minded competitor to the other banks in the area. We look forward to the combined synergies that our two firms can realize while providing Macatawa’s customers with an expanded array of products and services.”  

Richard L. Postma, Chairman of the Board of Macatawa, said, “Wintrust provides Macatawa with the ability to retain and enhance its uniquely personalized consumer and commercial community presence in the West Michigan area by retaining the Macatawa Bank name, its key employees, branches, and a legally constituted community bank board, as a separately chartered bank. We anticipate a seamless transition to becoming the 16^th successful community bank subsidiary of Wintrust, and the only subsidiary located within the State of Michigan. We are confident that this transaction, which combines similar cultures and operating philosophies, will result in a continued community bank that offers all the enhanced services, products and technology of Wintrust to meet the evolving banking needs of our customers.”