SPARTA — ChoiceOne Financial Services Inc. recorded higher earnings for 2021, benefitting from mergers that the bank completed in 2019 and 2020.
The Sparta-based parent company of ChoiceOne Bank today reported $22 million in net income for the whole year, or $2.86 per diluted share. That compares with $15.6 million, or $2.07 per diluted share, in net income for 2020 that included $2.7 million in merger-related expenses.
ChoiceOne Bank President and CEO Kelly Potes
MIBIZ FILE PHOTO
President and CEO Kelly Potes said in an earnings release that ChoiceOne (Nasdaq: COFS) last year realized cost benefits from mergers completed in 2020 and 2019.
“In addition, we added experienced lenders to our team which has helped us achieve loan growth and have momentum heading into 2022 to further deploy our outstanding local deposit base,” Potes said.
ChoiceOne also recently added staff to its wealth management operations. In September, the bank completed a $32.5 million capital raise through a private debt placement that “positions us well to continue to grow the franchise and deliver shareholder value,” Potes said.
ChoiceOne reported $5 million in net income for the fourth quarter of 2021, or 66 cents per diluted share, versus $4.1 million, or 52 cents per diluted share, in the same period a year earlier.
The corporation has 35 ChoiceOne banking offices in Kent, Lapeer, Macomb, Muskegon, Newaygo, Ottawa, and St. Clair counties with $2.36 billion in total assets at the end of 2021, an increase of more than $447.3 million from a year earlier. ChoiceOne’s total deposits grew $377.7 million during the year to end 2021 at $2.05 billion.
