.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} As Great Western Bank continues to expand in Greater Des Moines, its parent company is poised for significant growth as the newest arm of an international financial services group. On Nov. 29, National Australia Bank Ltd. announced an agreement to purchase Great Western Bancorporation Inc. for $798 million.

Based in Sioux Falls, S.D., the $3.4 billion bank holding company has been owned for the past 35 years by the Deryl Hamann family of Omaha. Through the acquisition, the bank’s goal is to “become one of the leading financial institutions in the Western United States,” said Great Western President and CEO Jeff Erickson.

“Combining with NAB will enable Great Western Bank to significantly enhance our product and service offerings,” Erickson said. “It will help us provide new opportunities for our employees, recruit new employees into the bank, and allow us to give additional support to the communities where we live and work.”

Great Western Bancorporation operates 27 branches in Central and Southern Iowa as part of a 101-office network that extends into Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota.

The bank entered the Greater Des Moines market in 1999 by purchasing the assets of the failed Hartford-Carlisle Savings Bank, and has since increased its loan portfolio from $30 million to $160 million in Greater Des Moines. It operates five branches in the metropolitan area, with a sixth under construction on Des Moines’ East Side.

“The difference with this acquisition and some acquisitions we’ve seen in the past is that this is focused on growth, rather than cost savings,” said Allen Shafer, regional president for Great Western’s Iowa and Northern Missouri branches, who’s based at the bank’s Clive branch. “They (National Australia Bank) have a strong agricultural lending history, as does our family. This was an opportunity for them to use our brand – they like our Great Western brand – and to build on it.”

Great Western Bank’s senior leadership and name will remain the same, and customers will see no changes in account numbers, Shafer said. National Australia Bank, whose stock is publicly traded on the Australian Securities Exchange, reported record fiscal 2007 earnings of $4.4 billion in November, a 17.7 percent increase from fiscal 2006 earnings. NAB operates under the retail brands National Australia Bank, Bank of New Zealand, Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank, with operations in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Asia and the United States. NAB also operates nabCapital, which focuses on debt financing, risk management and investment products for corporate and institutional customers.

Though banking has become nearly synonymous with global operations, foreign ownership of banks operating in Greater Des Moines is still relatively rare. LaSalle Bank was owned by Dutch-based ABN AMRO Holding N.V. until Bank of America Corp. bought LaSalle in October. California-based Bank of the West, which is owned by the French BNP Paribas financial services group, is one of the few banks in Greater Des Moines with a foreign-based parent.

Shafer acknowledged there has been some concern expressed by customers about foreign ownership of the bank. “I think one key aspect of that is we will continue to be (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.)-regulated and FDIC-insured,” he said. “We actually continue to be an Iowa corporation. Great Western Bancorporation continues to exist, just instead of the Hamann family being the owner, it’s National Australia Bank.”

Agribusiness lending op-portunities represented a key reason for the acquisition, according to John Stewart, group chief executive officer of National Australia Bank.

“Great Western Bank offers an ideal springboard to accelerate the organic growth strategy for our agribusiness relationship banking model into the United States,” he said in a release. “It is a strong, well-run bank with a robust history of expansion, a strong deposit base and sound financial performance.”

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Great Western Bank reported net income of $32.2 million, compared with $15.1 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2006. The bank made $159.5 million in agricultural production loans in the most recent quarter, along with $140 million in farmland-secured loans.

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2008, pending ap-proval by U.S. and Australian regulators.

Great Western’s newest branch, to be located at the southwest corner of East 14th Street and Euclid Avenue, has been in the works for more than a year and is unrelated to the acquisition, Shafer said.

“We really think the East Side of the market is underserved in banking,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for us to provide services and fill needs that aren’t being met there.”

The area is also attractive because it has both a strong population base and a strong work force, Shafer said. “It’s one of the few areas where the daytime population and the nighttime population are about the same, whereas in other areas it’s one or the other.”

The branch, which will be just over 2,300 square feet and include a drive-up window and automated teller machine, should be ready to open by early summer, if the weather cooperates, Shafer said.