Berkshire Bank to acquire 11 Bank of America branches in Utica–Rome area

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: BHLB) today announced that its banking subsidiary, Berkshire Bank, has agreed to acquire 20 retail bank branches in New York state from Bank of America, including 11 in Oneida and Herkimer counties.

 

The area branches include four in Utica and two in Rome, plus one office each in Ilion, West Winfield, Little Falls, New Hartford, and Whitesboro.

 

The 20 acquired branches have about $640 million in total deposits and $5 million in loans, Berkshire said in a news release. The offices are located in New York state markets that are within or contiguous to markets currently served by Berkshire, it said.

 

The other nine offices Berkshire is acquiring are in Amsterdam, Cairo, Chatham, Glens Falls, Greenville, Hudson, Johnstown, New Lebanon, and Queensbury.

 

Berkshire said it intends to offer continued employment to employees who are on staff when the acquisition is completed, which is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2014.

 

The 20 branches will increase Berkshire’s total branch count to 94 branches in its footprint, and its New York branch total will more than double to 37 offices. Berkshire has $5.2 billion in total assets, before the purchase.

 

The bank says the acquired deposits will help fuel its future growth and add to its profit.

 

“We plan to utilize the acquired deposit funds to replace certain existing higher-cost deposits and borrowings, along with providing additional core funding to support future growth. We expect that the acquired operations will be immediately accretive to core earnings per share and that incremental earnings will provide a payback to tangible book value per share within four to five years,” Berkshire CEO Michael Daly said in a news release.

 

Berkshire is based in Pittsfield, Mass. but is building a growing presence in Central New York. The banking company first entered the area in 2011 with its acquisition of Rome Savings Bank and acquired DeWitt–based Beacon Federal last October.

 

Berkshire used Jefferies LLC as its financial advisor and Luse Gorman Pomerenk & Schick, P.C. as its outside legal counsel in the acquisition agreement with Bank of America.

 

Bank of America is also selling other branches in Central New York.

 

On July 11, Chemung Canal Trust Co., announced that it has agreed to buy six Bank of America branch offices located in Auburn, Cortland, Ithaca, and Seneca Falls.

 

 

 

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com