After legal wrangling, Otto Bremer Trust closes on sale of bank

Early in my career, I remember hearing that “Bremer will never be sold; it’s owned by a foundation.”.I never really understood what that meant, and of course, it turned out to be inaccurate. Old National Bancorp, which claims headquarters in both Evansville, Ind., and Chicago, completed its purchase of St. Paul-based Bremer Financial Corporation in a $1.4 billion deal on May 1. The merger creates a $70 billion bank; the Bremer name will remain until the organizations are integrated, which is expected this October.Bremer, which had $16.2 billion in assets, was owned 90 percent by the Otto Bremer Trust and 10 percent by the bank’s ESOP. Post-acquisition, the foundation continues to own 11 percent of the bank.German immigrant Otto Bremer came to Minnesota in 1886, eventually becoming chairman of the American National Bank. Along the way, he invested in many country banks throughout the Upper Midwest. In 1943, he created Bremer Bank as a holding company for his community banks. A year later, he created the Otto Bremer Trust, with the idea that as long as the bank holding company existed, its dividends would be granted back to the communities served by the banks, which were located in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.Plans to sell the bank first emerged in 2019, when speculation put a sale price at about $2 billion. The plan to sell the bank, however, resulted in multiple lawsuits involving the Otto Bremer Trust and the Bremer Financial board. At one point, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office got involved.The legal activity stalled any dealmaking for five years. When the suits were settled by July of 2024, Old National and Bremer agreed on a deal, which was announced Nov. 25.“When you look at what has made Bremer Bank a leading institution since 1943, what you quickly find are the same strategic priorities and cultural principles that have guided Old National’s success for 190 years: a strong deposit franchise, a diversified loan portfolio and a passion for investing in and strengthening community,” said Old National Chair and CEO Jim Ryan.Ironically, Bremer rebranded just about the time word leaked that members of the Trust were interested in selling the bank. The bank spent two years studying its customers and employees, resulting in a new look, somewhat reflective of the region’s Scandinavian heritage. The cool blue and white lettering with the horizontal bar over the B in Bremer was supposed to express modernity. Six years later, it is being purchased by a bank with the word “old” in it. Bremer’s former branding used to include an eagle, colloquially known as Otto, perhaps a little more than foreshadowing.Jeanne Crain, Bremer’s president and CEO since 2016, stepped down upon close of the sale. A native of Rugby, N.D., Crain had a career working at a half dozen metro banks. Upon college graduation, she went to work at Bank One in Milwaukee, where her boss was Doug Hile; coincidentally, he went on to run KleinBank in Chaska, Minn., which sold to Old National in 2018. Hile left Bank One to join Carl Pohlad’s Marquette Bank Minneapolis, and he soon offered Crain a job there.This magazine featured Crain in a 2019 article, in which she described several interesting efforts on the part of Bremer, including a “cashless branch” concept, and a fintech partnership that was designed to make commercial and ag loans available the same day the customer applied for the credit.Importantly, the Otto Bremer Trust is not going away. When the sale of the bank was announced, the Trust issued a statement: “Our trustees remain committed to the Otto Bremer Trust’s mission of investing in people, places and opportunities in our region.”Old National, founded on the shores of the Ohio River in 1834, also spotlights its community commitment. Its website notes: “We have the heart, culture and DNA of a smaller community bank, we are proud to have strong relationships with our clients and communities and an inclusive work environment that empowers our team members to deliver their best.”