A South Dakota bank will purchase the Commercial Federal Bank branch at Hy-Vee Food Store in Austin.

Tuesday, February 27, 2001

A South Dakota bank will purchase the Commercial Federal Bank branch at Hy-Vee Food Store in Austin.

In an announcement made Monday, Commercial Federal said it has a purchase agreement with Home Federal Savings Bank of Sioux Falls, S.D., to sell its branches in Austin, Albert Lea, Mankato and Rochester. Details of the sale were not released.

"We are pleased to be able to sell these branches to a company as committed to customers as Commercial Federal Bank," William A. Fitzgerald, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Commercial Federal, said in a prepared statement. "We feel Home Federal will continue to serve the customers in these four communities very well and will be an excellent addition to these communities."

A closing on the transaction is expected in the year’s second quarter and is subject to federal regulatory approval and other conditions.

Home Federal, which doesn’t have any connections to a Spring Valley-based banking institution of the same name, looks at the four branches for growth.

"This is an excellent opportunity to expand Home Federal’s branch network," Curtis L. Hage, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Home Federal, said in an announcement. "These new locations will fit well into our overall branch system and our philosophy of being in progressive cities."

Home Federal Savings Bank is a subsidiary of HF Financial Corp. It has assets of about $765 million and currently operates 29 branches in 22 communities in South Dakota and southwest Minnesota. HF Financial Corp. is the largest publicly traded financial institution based in South Dakota.

Commercial Federal is a subsidiary of Commercial Federal Corp. The $12.5 billion federal savings bank has branches in Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arizona and Minnesota.