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The two mergers involving four of largest Massachusetts-based stock banks were completed on Friday as expected, bringing an end to two long-time fixtures in Greater Boston’s banking landscape.
Medford-based Century Bank, which had been established by Marshall Sloane in 1969 and grew to more than $7 billion in assets, was acquired by Eastern Bank, while Rockland Trust Co. acquired East Boston Savings Bank, which dates back to 1848 and had more than $6 billion in assets.
Eastern Bank’s parent company, Eastern Bankshares Inc., said in a statement Friday that it had completed the acquisition of Century Bancorp after the close of business. The $642 million all-cash deal will see Century shareholders receive $115.28 for each share of Century’s common stock.
“We are excited to have completed – just over a year after Eastern’s initial public offering – the largest acquisition in our Bank’s history and in doing so, to strategically expand Eastern’s presence in Boston and Eastern Massachusetts,” Bob Rivers, Eastern’s CEO and board chair, said in the statement. “On behalf of everyone at Eastern, we are thrilled to welcome Century customers and employees, and to carry on the exceptional customer service and community support cultivated by the Century team. This is an exciting milestone made possible thanks to the extraordinary talent of our teams, and we look forward to operating as a combined, larger organization offering an excellent customer service experience and being there for our customers’ financial needs.”
Including Century’s assets, Eastern Bank now has about $24 billion in total assets.
Rockland Trust’s parent company, Independent Bank Corp., also announced on Friday that it would complete its acquisition of Meridian Bancorp, East Boston Savings Bank’s parent company, before midnight.
The stock deal valued at $1.15 billion saw Meridian Bancorp shareholders receive approximately 14.3 million shares of Independent common stock. Each Meridian share was exchanged for .2750 of a share of Independent’s common stock. Shareholders could receive some cash as well for any fractional shares.
“We heartily welcome the customers of East Boston Savings Bank to Rockland Trust, and we look forward to demonstrating our shared commitment to the highest standards of customer service,” Christopher Oddleifson, the CEO of Independent Bank Corp. and Rockland Trust Company, said in the statement. “We remain excited about the strategic benefits of this transaction and are eager to get started unlocking the opportunities resulting from the combination of two leading franchises and increased scale, including expansion of Rockland’s broad financial product set to an expanded business and consumer customer base.”
The merger gives Rockland Trust about $20 billion in assets.
Both Eastern and Rockland Trust brought their new customers onboard with systems conversions over the weekend.
A total of 35 Greater Boston bank branches will close, with the banks having overlapping footprints. Eastern is closing eight Century branches and nine of its own offices.
Rockland Trust is closing 16 East Boston Savings Bank branches and two of its own branches. Eight of the East Boston Savings branches will be acquired by other institutions, HarborOne and Metro Credit Union, with employees receiving jobs with the new institutions. The customer accounts will remain with Rockland Trust.
The two deals, which had been announced in April, are among several affecting the Massachusetts banking landscape this year. Another transaction involving one of the region’s other large stock banks was completed in July, as Boston Private was acquired by the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank and is now known as Boston Private – An SVB Company.
In another deal, Connecticut-based People’s United Bank, which has branches across Massachusetts, will be acquired by Buffalo-based M&T Bank. That deal, which was announced in February, has been approved by Connecticut and New York regulators and awaits federal approval.
Eastern acquired Century with capital raised through its initial public offering after converting to a stock bank last year, and the bank could soon make more use of that capital. Eastern said in its statement that it had also received a notice of non-objection from the Federal Reserve Board for a share repurchase program. The program will see Eastern buy back up to 9,337,900 shares, 5 percent of Eastern’s outstanding shares of common stock. The program, which Eastern does not expect to begin before December, could last for 12 months and is limited to $225 million.
