Wintrust Financial completed its previously announced acquisition of Rush-Oak Corporation (ROC), the parent company of Oak Bank.

Established in 1970 and operating a banking location in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, Oak Bank had approximately $201 million in assets, approximately $141 million in loans and approximately $163 million in deposits as of March 31, 2019.

Edward J. Wehmer, president and CEO of Wintrust, commented, “This transaction expands our market presence in the heart of the City of Chicago. Oak Bank has a wonderful reputation for providing outstanding customer service using a community banking approach. We look forward to continuing that tradition and to providing its customers with an expanded array of products, services and resources.”

“We are very pleased to become a member of the Wintrust banking family. This transaction brings together two like-minded banking organizations as to their philosophy of offering highly personalized customer-oriented banking services,” said Roy E. Curran, president of Oak Bank. “The transaction allows us to continue focusing on serving our customers as we have for nearly 50 years, while at the same time providing our customers with access to a wider range of products and services.”

The aggregate purchase price (which takes into account the appreciated value of the real property located in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago) was approximately $46 million. Shares of ROC common stock outstanding at the time of the merger were converted into the right to receive per share merger consideration paid in cash.

Coincidentally with the closing of the ROC acquisition, the shares of Oak Bank held directly by individual minority shareholders were redeemed by ROC for the right to receive cash for an aggregate redemption value of approximately $8.7 million, leaving Oak Bank as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ROC at the time of closing.

The transaction is not expected to have a material effect on Wintrust’s 2019 earnings per share.

Stephens Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor to ROC on the transaction and provided a fairness opinion to its Board of Directors. Hinshaw & Culbertson acted as ROC’s transaction counsel, while Schiff Hardin served as transaction counsel to Wintrust.

Wintrust is a financial holding company with assets of approximately $32 billion. Wintrust offers sophisticated technology and resources of a large bank while focusing on providing service-based community banking to each and every customer via fifteen community bank subsidiaries with over 160 banking locations located in the greater Chicago and southern Wisconsin market areas.