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People’s United Bank’s headquarters in Bridgeport, Conn. will become M&T’s New England regional headquarters.
a regional commercial-lending power, one that was acquired by Chit- tenden Bank in 1995 and then again by People’s United in 2008.
People’s United, with a much longer history (it was founded in 1842), boasts more than 6,000 employees these days, offering commer- cial and retail banking, as well as weath-management services, through a network of more than 400 retail locations in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The company also provides specialized commercial services to customers nation- wide. As of Dec. 31, 2020, the institution had total assets of more than $63 billion, loans of $44 billion, and deposits of $52 billion.
M&T, headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y., operates banking offices
in New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Con- necticut, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It ranks among the largest regional lenders in the Northeast, with $142.6 billion
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“The density allows us to leverage local market knowledge, our recently bolstered technology infrastructure, and our nationally recognized brand.”
in assets at the end of 2020. Commercial real-estate loans comprise almost 40% of its portfolio, and despite the pandemic’s impact on that sector, loan performance at the bank has been better than expected over the past year.
Under the terms of the agreement, People’s United shareholders will receive 0.118 of a share of M&T common stock for each People’s United share they own. Following completion of the transaction, former Peo- ple’s United shareholders will collectively own approximately 28% of the combined company.
The merger has been unanimously approved by the boards of direc- tors of each company and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of reg- ulatory approvals and approval by the shareholders of each company.
Open the Floodgates
The acqusition is just the latest in a series of regional mergers seek- ing scale in order to better compete with
the largest U.S. banks as low interest rates cut into lending profits, Forbes reported.
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Merger
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