Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Independent Bank Corp. will acquire HCB Financial Corp. and its subsidiary, Highpoint Community Bank, in a roughly $70.2 million deal that’s set to close early in the third quarter, the companies said Wednesday.
The move will bolster Independent’s footprint in the “high-growth corridor” between Grand Rapids and Lansing, the bank said. Independent has clusters of branches around each city but little in the area connecting them.
Buying Hastings, Michigan-based Highpoint will give Independent seven added branches and infuse the bank with $590 million in assets, $532 million in deposits and $354 million in loans. That will push Independent’s asset total past $6 billion.
On a conference call Thursday announcing the deal, Independent CFO Gavin Mohr said the bank intends to funnel “a lot” of liquidity from the Highpoint acquisition into the combined banks’ commercial pipeline.
Brad Kessel, Independent Bank Corp.’s CEO, called the deal “a perfect fit both geographically and culturally.”
“By combining Highpoint’s strong core deposit base and deep community roots with our expanded product set, we are better positioned to serve the families and businesses of Michigan while delivering meaningful value to our shareholders,” Kessel said.
Mark Kolanowski, HCB’s CEO, heralded the combination as an “exciting new chapter.”
“We have long respected Independent’s commitment to community banking,” he said. “This merger strengthens our ability to serve customers with greater lending capacity and enhanced digital capabilities, while keeping our employees part of a Michigan-headquartered team rooted in and committed to our local communities.”
The Highpoint deal marks Independent’s first acquisition since 2018, when it bought $341.8 million-asset Traverse City State Bank for $63.2 million.
Under this week’s deal, HCB investors will receive 1.590 Independent shares and $17.51 in cash for each share they own. The acquisition’s $70.2 million value stems from Independent’s $33.13-per-share closing price from Tuesday. The deal represents a 48% premium on Highpoint’s tangible book value.
Independent estimates cost savings equal to roughly 40% of HCB's operating expenses, which totaled $15.1 million last year.
The bank expects the acquisition to be roughly 6% accretive to Independent’s earnings per share by next year. Independent projects it will earn back its tangible book value per share in 3.4 years, from a 4% dilution at closing.
As part of the merger, one HCB director will join the board of Independent Bank. An HCB director will also join the board of the holding company.
Bank mergers and acquisitions spiked in 2025, with regional lenders focusing largely on targets with between $10 billion to $100 billion in assets.
In the wake of those deals, banks like Highpoint, in the sub-$1 billion-asset range, may find a slimmer pool of potential buyers.
“As upstream asset-size banks are consolidating, downstream banks are saying, ‘Hey, here was my likely buyer that I used to think would be interested in me, and they’ve now doubled in size over the last few years. Don’t know if they’re still going to be interested in me. So maybe I should do something sooner than later, before my buyer universe disappears or changes drastically,’” Kirk Hovde, managing principal and head of investment banking at Hovde Group, told Banking Dive in December.
M&A has slowed so far in 2026, with around 30 deals announced this year, according to Seaport Research Partners. By comparison, 2025 saw 181 bank combinations.
