NBT Bancorp had its eye on Syracuse market before acquisition

Editor’s Note: The Newsmaker Interview portion of Financial Quarterly features a conversation with a CEO of a major Central New York business every quarter. The story discusses key financial issues affecting the newsmaker’s company and industry. 

SYRACUSE — Leaders at NBT Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBTB) have long had their eyes on the Syracuse market.

“We kind of had Syracuse surrounded on two or three sides,” NBT President and CEO Martin Dietrich says. “It’s a very logical extension of the market expansion we had under way for a number of years throughout the core part of upstate New York.”

Norwich–based NBT announced its push into the local market in October with its acquisition of Syracuse–based Alliance Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ALNC). The $233 million deal is expected to close in early 2013. NBT already has branches in the Utica and Binghamton areas and in parts of the North Country.

And now that the bank has a pending foothold in Syracuse, Dietrich says expansion in Central New York is likely to continue, although he adds it’s too early to discuss specific details.

“We like the management team that Alliance has in place,” he says. “They’ve been incredibly successful. We want to bring even more efforts to bear. We would like to think going forward, the combined organization will have an even greater impact on the Syracuse market.”

Alliance, Dietrich notes, has already established good momentum.

“It’s our hope to continue to build on that,” he says. “If you look at how we’ve expanded into other markets, you’ll see that over time, we’ve had pretty good success in deepening our presence in those markets.”

Dietrich says it’s still too early to discuss any possible job cuts that might come as a result of the deal. The acquisition is likely to include some reductions, mainly in support areas, according to NBT.

Following the closing, Alliance Chairman, President, and CEO Jack Webb will join NBT’s board of directors and the company’s management team as executive vice president for strategic support. Richard Shirtz, currently senior vice president and manager of the commercial banking group at Alliance, will become Syracuse regional president for NBT.

NBT had previously considered entering the local market by opening new branches of its own in the area. However, the Syracuse market is too large for a bank to be effective opening one branch office at a time, Dietrich says,

NBT has $6 billion in assets and 135 branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. The banking company also owns a 401(k) record- keeping firm and an insurance agency.

Alliance Financial has more than $1.4 billion in total assets and 29 offices in Cortland, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego counties. Alliance also owns an equipment-lease financing company and operates an investment-management administration center in Buffalo.

NBT will gain $890 million in net loans held for investment and $1.1 billion in deposits in the acquisition.

Third-quarter profit at Alliance Financial fell more than 37 percent from a year earlier to $2.3 million, or 48 cents a share.

Net income for the third quarter in 2011 received a boost of $472,000 in net securities gains while the same period in 2012 included $598,000 in costs related to the NBT deal.  

NBT reported net income of $14.5 million, or 43 cents per share, down 4.5 percent from $15.2 million, or 45 cents, in the third quarter of 2011. Merger-related costs were $600,000 during the quarter, up from $200,000 the previous year. 

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com

***PULL QUOTE: “We kind of had Syracuse surrounded on two or three sides,” NBT President and CEO Martin Dietrich says. “It’s a very logical extension of the market expansion we had under way for a number of years throughout the core part of upstate New York.”