Farm Credit of New Mexico, American AgCredit announce intent to merge
Farmers, ranchers, and agribusiness in territories across the U.S. will have a stronger partner to help them build their operations for the future, with Farm Credit of New Mexico announcing its intent to merge into American AgCredit.
The new American AgCredit aims to have total assets of $19 billion, a diverse agricultural portfolio across North America, and a lending area covering seven states, delivering enhanced marketplace stability, increased funding capacity to scale customer operations, better access to technology, and profitability for its customer-owners.
“Our customers are growing, adapting, and changing the shape of agriculture. And so are we,” said Alan Feit, president and CEO, Farm Credit of New Mexico. “We are building on strength, adding size and scale to protect and enhance our market competitiveness. This merger would power our pursuit of the Farm Credit mission to support agriculture and rural America, which is all we do, and our area expertise. Our goal is to help customers across the territory succeed today, and tomorrow.”
According to American AgCredit CEO Curt Hudnutt, the merger also advances the associations’ most important asset— their people.
“The culture and values of both associations align really well,” said Hudnutt. “This gives us a fantastic foundation to build our teams which combined would include nearly 850 employees. We know that leveraging the power of their combined expertise across all segments of agriculture would allow us to better serve our customers.”
The associations’ boards of directors, chaired by Gary Harshberger at American AgCredit and James Duffey at Farm Credit of New Mexico, unanimously agreed to pursue a merger and signed a letter of intent to merge, kicking off a year-long process that includes due diligence, regulatory approval and customer-stockholder approval. The merged association is expected to begin operations mid-2023, under the leadership of Hudnutt.
