A bank investor group that includes turnaround financier Wilbur L. Ross Jr. and several former PrivateBancorp and MB Financial executives on Friday made its second purchase of a failed bank this year.
Troy, Mich.-based First Michigan Bank, part of the bank portfolio of WL Ross & Co., on Friday acquired the assets and deposit of First Banking Center of Burlington, Wis., in a deal with financial assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
In April, First Michigan acquired a Port Huron-based bank in another FDIC-assisted deal. Ross is on First Michigan’s board, according to the institution’s Web site.
First Michigan also now has more than a half a dozen former executives of two mid-size Chicago-based banks on its team.
They include: former MB Financial executive Tommy FitzGibbon, now managing director of First Michigan ; Gary Collins, a former PrivateBancorp managing director and board member who is now president of First Michigan’s Wisconsin region; Hugh McLean, a former president of PrivateBank’s suburban Chicago offices and now a First Michigan executive managing director; Dennis Klaeser, former chief financial officer of PrivateBancorp, now chief financial officer of First Michigan; David Provost, former chief executive of PrivateBancorp’s Michigan operations and now CEO of First Michigan; Gary Cortner, a former PrivateBank-Grosse Pointe managing director who’s now First Michigan’s Port Huron-region president; Tom Brown, a former PrivateBank chief financial officer who’s now First Michigan chief operating officer.
The group is believed to be open to doing deals in other parts of the Midwest, including Illinois.
It’s great to see a class act like Tommy Fitzgibbon involved in banking again and see he made the right decision leaving MB.
Speaking of MB-Congratulations on your stock price’s new 52 week low! With weak executive managers like Rosemarie Bouman, Brian Wildman and the rest, we’re sure to see many more lows for this stock.
Great job! Your employees and shareholders must be real proud of your performance!
I agree with Mike. The MB executive management team needs to improve their performance. Their peers are outperforming them in most categories and their acquisitions don’t seem to have been smart business decisions. My business banked here for a couple of years and we just had an awful experience with MB. Seems like more businesses are experiencing the same.
I work at a great bank that competes with MB and even I feel bad about their recent performance. Their marketing is pretty bad and confusing and I understand they use fairly old operating systems. Maybe that has a lot do with their results. I almost feel like volunteering to help them.
Yes,the great bankers that made the Mid-City National Bank, LaSalle, the original American Charter, First Chicago have many people coming back into banking who actually believe in customer relationship versus “pricing” the customer.