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HOLLAND - Chemical Financial Corp's. acquisition of branches that Old Kent and Fifth Third had to jettison as a result of their merger gives the Midlandbased. corporation a solid foothold in a market it's been wanting to tap.
Chemical Financial is acquiring three branches in Ottawa County, and a fourth in Fremont, from Old Kent and Fifth Third, which were forced to divest of the offices by federal regulators.
The acquisition of the branch offices comes three months after Chemical Financial completed its acquisition of Benton Harbor-based Shoreline Financial Corp., which has banking offices as far north as Fennville and Saugatuck in Allegan County.
Chemical Financial, which until the Shoreline merger had been centered in central and eastern Michigan, wanted to move further up the Lake Michigan shoreline and enter the growing Holland-Zeeland and Grand Haven markets. The corporation saw the Old Kent and Fifth Third...