DeWITT — Third-quarter profit slipped 8 percent at DeWitt–based Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE: CBU) to $18.4 million, or 46 cents a share.
Acquisition costs totaling $4.8 million for the period, compared with $400,000 a year earlier, helped push earnings lower.
Community Bank System has $7.6 billion in assets and more than 180 branches. The banking company also operates subsidiaries in employee benefits, insurance, investment management and advising, and wealth management.
The bank acquired 19 new branches during the quarter.
It added three First Niagara Bank branches in Canandaigua and Geneva and 16 HSBC locations in Adams, Alexandria Bay, Avon, Fulton, Geneseo, Gowanda, Lowville, Newark, Oswego, Palmyra, Plattsburgh, Springville, Watertown, Watkins Glen, and Westfield.
Community Bank later consolidated five of the acquired branches into existing branches of its own, President and CEO Mark Tryniski said during a conference call today on the bank’s latest quarterly results.
The HSBC locations were part of First Niagara’s acquisition of 195 HSBC locations in upstate New York, Westchester County, and Connecticut. First Niagara sold some branches after the acquisition to comply with anti-trust rules and in some markets that weren’t a priority.
For more on this story, see Friday’s issue of The Central New York Business Journal.
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com