With four acquisitions in as many years, Springfield-based Great Southern Bank has grown its footprint to 107 locations across six states and its assets to more than $4 billion. However, rapid growth comes with growing pains, as the bank plans to consolidate 11 former acquisition locations by the close of business Oct. 25.
“This was not an easy decision with many sleepless nights,” said Kris Conley, Great Southern vice president and director of retail banking. “After an acquisition you have to evaluate, find the weaknesses and strengths.
“We evaluated the entire network on criteria such as access, availability of services and proximity to other locations.”
The 11 banking centers to be consolidated are all in Missouri and were acquired in 2011 when the bank’s holding company, Great Southern Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: GSBC), agreed to purchase the 27 locations of Ellington-based Sun Security Bank with assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Five of the centers are in central Missouri: Fair Play, Holts Summit, Humansville, Gravois Mills and Weaubleau. The remaining six are in southeastern Missouri: Annapolis, Arcadia, Centerville, Lesterville, Marquand and Piedmont.
The closures include four locations in Iron and Reynolds counties, where Great Southern has a more than 30 percent market share. However, Conley said the branches will be consolidated because of their rural locations.
“Some of these towns have less than 200 people,” he said. “A 34 percent market share of 200 people isn’t a lot.”
Conley said ATMs will remain open at all consolidated branches and employees will be transferred to other locations or given a severance package.
Branching out In addition to the Sun Security acquisition, in March 2009, Great Southern Bancorp Inc. added 17 branches following the purchase of Paola, Kan.-based TeamBank N.A., and in September of the same year tallied 15 additional locations with the purchase of Sioux City, Iowa-based Vantus Bank. Last year, Great Southern expanded its reach farther north with four locations of Maple Grove, Minn.-based Inter Savings Bank. As part of the acquisitions, Great Southern closed a TeamBank office in Lee’s Summit and consolidated a Sun Security branch in Greenfield.
“We are at a unique point in the banking history, a generational opportunity,” said Great Southern President Joe Turner. “Because of the great economic crisis, there was a tremendous dislocation in the banking business. As a result, many banks were at or near failure. That creates tremendous opportunity for those able to buy.
“We were one of the first, back in 2009, to take advantage. It gave up an opportunity to get into good markets in eastern Kansas, Iowa and Omaha in a low-cost way. Those kinds of opportunities don’t come along very often.”
Great Southern currently has 73 locations in Missouri, 14 in Iowa, 11 in Kansas, four each in Nebraska and Minnesota and one in Arkansas.
National perception Representing 14.59 percent of the Springfield metropolitan statistical area market share, Great Southern in a known local quantity with firm roots in the Queen City metro area. However, venture outside the local MSA’s borders and Great Southern’s MSA market share stake drops drastically to 0.35 percent in St. Louis and 0.65 percent in Kansas City. Farther north in Minnesota, the FDIC reported market share in the Minneapolis/St. Paul MSA falls to 0.26 percent.
Minnesota Bankers Association President and CEO Joe Witt said Great Southern’s presence in the Twin City area is small, but growing.
“Minnesota is a very competitive banking market in general,” he said, nothing the state has the third-most banking charters nationwide at 366, compared to Missouri’s 293. “However, we are very unique in that we have a couple large banks, a couple medium banks and lots and lots of small banks. That’s where Great Southern fits into the picture.
“They have a business and mortgage focus and I think the Twin Cities will welcome that.”
Steering away from the multiple-location blanket approach, Turner said the bank is pursuing a different strategy in the land of 10,000 lakes.
“Obviously, we can’t compete on a retail basis, so our short term – 10 or 15 year – strategy is a bit different. In Springfield, Sioux City and Des Moines, we really cover the metro area. In Minneapolis, we are going to be more targeted,” he said. “We will probably be a bit more of a commercial bank in that area.
“Minneapolis is the largest MSA we serve, so there is tremendous opportunity there. We can be a relatively small player in that market and still do business that is very significant for our company.”
Other areas of growth include the Sioux City, Iowa, market, where Great Southern is holding down 7 percent of the market share, according to the FDIC.
“Sioux is a great market for us; we have 12 locations that are thriving,” Conley said. “I think it will continue to perform well and our presences in that market will only grow.”
Turner said the bank has no official plans for future acquisitions, saying Great Southern plans to continue improvements to its current locations.
“The downtown branch is a good example of improvements that are being made around the city,” he said. “We will continue to examine acquisition opportunities. It’s hard to say if we would be a successful bidder on an FDIC deal. Those are getting fewer and farther in between, which is a good thing for the economy.”[[In-content Ad]]
