Nancy Skophammer, President of Farmers State Bank of Hartland, recently announced that Minnesota Community Bancshares, Inc. has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Hartland Bancshares, Inc. which owns Farmers State Bank of Hartland. The Minnesota Community Bancshares, Inc. group is led by current Bank officers, Daniel Otten and Mark Heinemann. The acquisition, which requires the approval of banking regulators, is expected to be completed in April of 2014. Official legal notice of this transaction was published on February 3, 2014, in the Albert Lea Tribune.
According to Nancy Skophammer, “We are very excited about the Minnesota Community Bancshares group, and how they plan to continue the strong commitment to the community that Farmers State Bank has established over the past 102 years. The timing was right for us to pass along the ownership of the bank, and we do so with confidence that the new group will continue to build upon the tremendous success of the past 20 years.”Daniel Otten, CEO, and Mark Heinemann, President of Minnesota Community Bancshares, Inc. added, “We are very excited about the opportunity to acquire Farmers State Bank of Hartland and are grateful to the Skophammer family for allowing us the opportunity to keep this bank local. Our main goal is to make this transition as seamless as possible for customers and we fully expect there to be continuity with the management team and staff. The Bank is one of the leaders in deposit market share in Freeborn County and has a cutting edge product line of personal and business banking services. We anticipate that the transaction will allow us to grow the Bank in product offerings, size and strength.”
Farmers State Bank of Hartland has assets of $97 million and has three locations: Albert Lea, Hartland and Freeborn. The bank originated in Hartland in 1912 and remains a locally owned, independent community bank. The bank is a member of the FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender.