Cambridge Trust

The parent company of Cambridge Trust has completed its purchase of Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Optima Bank & Trust.

The company announced the closing of the acquisition yesterday and the brand conversion is scheduled to take place over the weekend of July 19.

The deal was first announced in December and took Optima, the seventh largest state-chartered bank and one of the few stock banks in the Granite State, off the market. The transaction is a part-stock, part-cash transaction valued at about $67 million, or 191 percent tangible book value.

Under the terms of the agreement, each share of Optima common stock was exchanged for either 0.35 shares of Cambridge common stock, or $32 in cash based on Cambridge Bancorp’s closing price of $85.61 on Dec. 4. The breakdown, according to an investor presentation, is 95 percent stock and 5 percent cash.

Upon the closing of the deal, Daniel Morrison, chairman, president and CEO of Optima, will join Cambridge Trust’s board of directors.

Cambridge Trust until recently only had a presence in New Hampshire through its wealth management business. The company has amassed over $1 billion in client wealth management assets in New Hampshire since it began operations in the state in 1992.

The bank is now expanding in a big way, adding not only a significant retail presence, but also a whole new platform for its premier banking services.

The deal gives the nearly $2 billion asset Cambridge Trust and its 14 branches another roughly $524 million in assets and six more branches, two in Portsmouth, one in Dover, one in Stratham, one in North Hampton and one in Bedford. Cambridge Trust’s New Hampshire wealth management offices are located in Concord, Manchester and Portsmouth.

The closing occurred as Cambridge Trust reported first quarter earnings.

The company reported net income of nearly $6.2 million for the first quarter of this year, compared to net income of $5.8 million for the end of the first quarter of 2018.

Total assets reached more than $2.1 billion, up $178 million from last year. Total loans grew $175 million year-over-year, driven primarily from increases in commercial real estate.

The margin at the end of the first quarter was 3.26 percent, down slightly from this time last year. Loan quality remained sound with non-performing loans totaling $626,000, or 0.04 percent of total loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter.

Cambridge Trust Closes on Acquisition of New Hampshire Bank

by Bram Berkowitz time to read: 2 min
0