Liberty Bank FSB said it agreed to buy StateFed Financial Corp. for about $17.6 million in cash, ending several years of on-again and off-again attempts by Liberty and other financial institutions to purchase the bank.

Shareholders of StateFed, the parent company of State Federal Savings and Loan Association, will receive $13.47 per share for each share owned. The offer, made Tuesday evening after the close of U.S. stockmarkets, represented an 8 percent premium to StateFed’s closing price of $12.49 Tuesday.

The acquisition will give Liberty, which has 14 branches across Iowa, three more locations in Greater Des Moines, including a new facility on Des Moines’ skywalk that serves coffee and has Internet access.

“When we formed Liberty, we promised smart, aggressive growth,” said William A. Krause, Liberty’s chairman, in a statement. “The acquisition of State Federal jump starts our plans to build a presence in downtown, expand into the established neighborhoods of Des Moines and increase our locations in the fast-growing western suburbs.”

StateFed was the subject, briefly, of a takeover attempt a year ago when Eastern Iowa banker Douglas Kratz, chairman and chief executive of Bettendorf-based National Bancshares Inc., a made a $16 million offer for the bank. It was rejected by StateFed’s board, who said the offer was too low and wasn’t in the best interest of shareholders. Though he was rebuffed, Kratz held onto his 9.8 percent stake that he built in StateFed. As of Sept. 25, Kratz owned 126,600 shares of the thrift.

But Kratz’s stake was eclipsed by that owned by Krause Gentle Corp., which owns and operates the Kum and Go chain of convenience stores and is controlled by Krause. Krause Gentle owns 149,000 shares, or 11.5 percent, of StateFed. Krause failed in an attempt to buy StateFed in 1999.