Menomonee Falls-based Securant Bank & Trust will open a new 3,289-square-foot branch at 12960 W. Bluemound Road in Elm Grove in February. The bank, formerly known as Milwaukee Western Bank and MW Bank, is opening in Elm Grove because of its proximity to I-94, other eastern Waukesha County communities such as Brookfield and New Berlin and Western Milwaukee County, said David Davis, president and CEO.

"This gets us in the center and core of businesses in the city and is accessible to the communities in which we would hope to gather clients for our wealth management and trust services, which will be housed there with our commercial lending group," Davis said.  Securant launched its wealth management and trust services divisions earlier this year. The Elm Grove branch, when it opens, will be Securant's fifth and will house nine new employees.

In April, the bank opened a new branch in Slinger, where it has seen dramatic growth. "The Slinger branch was (projected) to be profitable by June of 2009," Davis said. "It was profitable in August. It is 525 percent ahead of its loan production goal and 1,100 percent ahead of its deposit growth."

Securant's Slinger branch has generated about $10 million in loans and more than $5.5 million in deposits, Davis said. The bank does little to no residential mortgages, focusing on commercial banking and loans.

It will continue to look for other branch locations where it can find the right employees and numbers of potential clients, Davis said.

"We grow where we can find the right people, the talent to provide the kind of service levels that we want to provide, and the markets that we want to be in," he said. "We're putting our banks today in a strategic focus."

Davis led a group of investors in purchasing the bank about one year ago. Although the bank was founded in 1914 and has a lengthy history, its focus on commercial clients has allowed it to remain relatively unscathed by the fallout stemming from the housing crisis, Davis said.

"The commercial community in Milwaukee is doing wonderful, and obviously their success is our success," he said. "We're not participating in what's going on outside (the credit crunch and slowdown). Things are OK."

Bank Mutual's Greenfield branch will open next Monday
Bank Mutual's new 4,000-square-foot branch at the intersection of South 84th Street and West Forest Home Avenue will open for business on Oct. 20. The full service branch will include full commercial and retail banking services, a drive through and 24-hour ATM. It will be Bank Mutual's 79th branch. The bank will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at noon on Oct. 29 with the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce, and will hold a week of special activities and appearances from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8. For more information, visit www.bankmutual.com.

Report: National City is for sale
National City Corp., which has been battered by the collapse of the subprime lending market, may be acquired by several potential suitors, including Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and Toronto-based Bank of Nova Scotia, according to The Wall Street Journal. The speculation last week prompted National City's stock shares to defy the Wall Street trend of plummeting bank stocks, rising to $2.37 late last week. The stock traded at $2.25 on Monday, far off its 52-week high of $26.01. Cleveland-based National City has reported four-straight quarters of losses totaling more than $2 billion. National City entered the Milwaukee market last year, when it acquired MAF Bancorp Inc., the parent company of MidAmerica Bank that had acquired St. Francis Capital Corp., the former parent company of St. Francis Bank, in 2003. MidAmerica Bank operated 24 branches with $1.3 billion in deposits in the Milwaukee area.

M&I acquires Miami wealth management firm
Marshall & Ilsley Corp. has reached an agreement to acquire Taplin, Canida & Habracht Inc. (TCH), a Miami-based fixed income money manager. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. All of the initial payment for TCH will be paid with M&I common stock.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the year, and the three principals of TCH will retain a portion of ownership and continue to work from Miami, where they will serve existing clients. TCH has about $7.5 billion under management. Once the transaction is complete, M&I Wealth Management will have about $32 billion in assets under management.

"We are excited to announce this strategic acquisition to expand our investment capabilities," said Kenneth Krei, M&I's senior vice president. "(TCH's) products complement the array of top-performing investment strategies already offered within M&I Wealth Management. Our history of successful acquisitions, strong distribution capacity, and commitment to enhancing our businesses provides a solid platform for TCH."

The Milwaukee-based law firm of Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. acted as legal advisor to M&I in the transaction, and Deutsche Bank Services served as its financial advisor.

EMSystems to acquire Texas company
Milwaukee-based EMSystems LLC announced that it will acquire Global Secure Corp., formerly known as virtual Alert, of Austin, Texas. EMSystems is an industry leader in web-based interoperable communications and patient tracking solutions. The solutions created by the combined companies will be used by more than 4,000 health care providers in 40 states, covering more than 70 percent of the U.S. population.

The Global Secure Readiness and Response Suite is the leading multi-media alerting and documentation management solution for crisis preparedness and response. The merged company will be headquartered in Milwaukee and will eventually be folded into the EMSystems name, according to Andy Nunemaker, who will remain as chief executive officer of the combined firm.

"Global Secure Systems and EMSystems have strong solutions that have been used to manage hundreds of incidents of all sizes," Nunemaker said. "Both companies share a commitment to providing reliable, robust solutions combined with excellent customer service. The combined company will be able to provide a unique integrated solution to an even wider audience."

"The synergies between these two companies make this deal very appealing for our customers," said Gary Fromm, CEO of Global Secure Systems. "The integration of the companies will allow for increased development of both current and new products. The resulting product suite will be superior to what either company could provide independently."

Fromm will not have a role in the merged company. The acquisition will result in the elimination of some duplicative jobs, but none of the eliminated jobs are in Milwaukee, Nunemaker told SBT.

"Customers are looking for integration of key preparedness and response activities including alerting and notification, collaboration, hospital evacuation, patient tracking, hospital resource management, inventory management, volunteer management, patient care reporting, and analysis," said Robert Hedgcock, EMSystems chief technical officer. "We expect the addition of Global Secure System's Health Alert Network and Volunteer Mobilizer functionality to EMSystems' current product suite will fill a critical need for customers that are looking for a comprehensive, interoperable, regional emergency preparedness and communication solution."

MMAC's economic indicators show more pain
A weak trend continued among local business activity indicators in August, as only five of 20 August indicators registered improvement from year-ago levels, according to the latest economic report by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC).

August's five improvements rank lower than the six improved indicators posted for July and continue a nearly year long trend (since November, 2007) in which less than half of indicators tracked have shown improvements.

"The events of the past couple weeks do not bode well for any short-term improvement in metro area economic activity," said Bret Mayborne, economic research director for the MMAC. "It is more probable that this weak overall economic trend will continue through the remainder of 2008 and into 2009's first quarter."

Notable among the latest indicators:

Dave Remstad will become vice president and chief actuary of Northwestern Mutual on Nov. 1. Remstad is currently vice president – specialty markets with Northwestern Mutual. In his new role he will lead the department's staff of 120 people in developing and pricing products, recommending dividend actions and establishing sound policy reserves. 

Colin Lancaster, president and chief operating officer of Stark Investments, was one of three Milwaukee area business leaders nominated to be elected as a new member of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce's board of directors.  The MMAC board will consider the nominations at its meeting on Monday, Oct. 27.

Gary Hermsen was recently hired by Green Bay-based Cornerstone Business Services as a business transaction advisor. Prior to joining Cornerstone, Hermsen was an owner and operating partner of Precision Paper Converters, a Kaukauna-based manufacturing company represented by Cornerstone. He worked with Cornerstone when PPC chose to sell off one of its divisions. Hermsen’s focus will be on manufacturing, with an emphasis on the paper industry in the Fox Valley area.