Tompkins Financial completes Pennsylvania acquisition

ITHACA — Tompkins Financial Corp. (NYSE Amex: TMP) closed its acquisition of VIST Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: VIST) of Wyomissing, Pa. on Aug. 1 and Tompkins’ leader says the banking company’s top priority moving ahead is clear.

“Our job one is to get this right,” Tompkins Financial President and CEO Stephen Romaine says. “We need to integrate this properly and make it grow and make sure it provides all the benefits we feel there will be.”

Tompkins Financial first announced its plans to acquire VIST in January in an all-stock deal worth $86 million. It’s the first push into Pennsylvania for Ithaca–based Tompkins.

Although the priority in the months ahead will be integration, more acquisitions in the market could emerge in the future, Romaine says.

“We feel we will be well positioned to take advantage of other opportunities down the line in that market,” he says.

Tompkins Financial was able to retain most of VIST’s 300 employees and add them to its work force of 750. Romaine also expects to retain “the lion’s share” of VIST deposits.

Tompkins Financial, based in Ithaca, operates 46 offices in the Central, Western, and Hudson Valley regions of New York through three subsidiary banks: Tompkins Trust Co., The Bank of Castile, and Mahopac National Bank. The company also owns insurance and wealth-management subsidiaries and has total assets of more than $3.5 billion.

VIST Financial had $1.4 billion in total assets, $1.2 billion in deposits, and 

$960 million in loans. It’s the parent of VIST Bank, VIST Insurance, and VIST Capital Management.

VIST Bank operates as a community bank with 21 branch offices in southeastern Pennsylvania, serving Berks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, and Schuylkill counties. VIST now operates as a Tompkins subsidiary with local leadership.

Tompkins Financial now has $5 billion in total assets, $3.8 billion in deposits, 

$2.9 billion in loans, and 67 branches.

Tompkins Financial and VIST employees have been working together since the companies publicly announced the deal, Romaine notes. Bank leaders have been encouraged by the cultural fit between the organizations, he says.

That fit is one of Tompkins’ prime filters when considering acquisitions, Romaine adds.

“We feel good about where it’s headed,” he says.

Southeast Pennsylvania had been on Tompkins Financial’s radar screen for several years, Romaine says. It’s about the same distance as Mahopac National Bank’s market area in the Hudson Valley.

For the second quarter, Tompkins Financial earned $8.8 million, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier. Earnings per share for the period totaled 72 cents, down from 85 cents in the second quarter of 2011.

Expenses of $703,000 related to the VIST acquisition helped push profit down. The company also recorded $243,000 after-tax income related to reversal of a liability involved with a recent settlement of litigation between VISA, Inc. and certain merchants.

Excluding the merger expenses and after-tax income, Tompkins earned $9.3 million, or 76 cents per share, for the quarter.

VIST hasn’t released earnings for the first or second quarter this year.