Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:BHLB) today completed its acquisition of CBT – The Connecticut Bank and Trust Company, a$280 million bank with eight banking offices serving the Greater Hartford area. Berkshire Hills is the parent of Berkshire Bank, America's Most Exciting Bank(SM), with more than $4 billion in assets and 60 branches servingMassachusetts, New York, and Vermont. CBT has been merged into Berkshire Bank, and the Connecticut offices will operate under the name "Berkshire Bank – CBT Region".
Berkshire President and CEO Michael P. Daly stated, "We are delighted to welcome the CBT team to the Berkshire Bank family. We look forward to building on the strong foundation that they have established in Connecticut, and we will now have a total of twenty banking offices serving the Hartford/Springfield market. We are introducing our increased lending resources and additional products and services to our new customers, along with maintaining a continued focus on high level customer service. This merger is expected to provide immediate financial benefits to BHLB shareholders in accordance with our original expectations. We welcome our new shareholders from CBT and we are pleased with the stock price appreciation that has benefited existing and new shareholders since the announcement date of this acquisition."
The total consideration paid by Berkshire includes approximately $9 million in cash and 965,000 shares of BHLB common stock. A cash/stock election among CBT shareholders was concluded on April 18, and Berkshire will report election results and the distribution of consideration on April 25. In accordance with the merger agreement, Berkshire Bank has completed a transaction with the U.S. Treasury to purchase and retire the preferred stock and warrant that had been previously issued to the Treasury by CBT.
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