Banknorth Group Inc., which operates banks in the Northeast, agreed yesterday to buy CCBT Financial Cos. for about $300 million in stock to enter Barnstable County, Mass., a fast-growing and affluent area on Cape Cod.
CCBT Financial is the parent of Cape Cod Bank & Trust. Each CCBT share will be exchanged for 1.084 shares of Portland, Maine-based Banknorth. That values CCBT shares at $35.52 each, 38 percent more than CCBT's closing price yesterday.
The CCBT purchase will give Banknorth 26 branches in Barnstable and Plymouth counties. South Yarmouth, Mass.-based CCBT has $1.4 billion in assets and is Barnstable's number-two bank behind closely held Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, Banknorth spokesman Brian Arsenault said.
Two weeks ago, Banknorth agreed to buy Foxborough Savings Bank for $89.6 million to add four offices in affluent suburbs south of Boston, its first locations in that area, Arsenault said.
The CCBT purchase, expected to close by the middle of 2004, will cut costs by 25 percent as Banknorth takes over back-office tasks. The company will try to find other positions for people whose jobs will be eliminated, Arsenault said.
Cape Cod Bank & Trust branches will be renamed Banknorth Massachusetts, he said. Banknorth has about 360 branches in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, with $25.7 billion in assets.
Banknorth has been mentioned as a possible acquisition target of Providence-based Citizens Financial Group, which has been given a mandate to expand by its parent, Royal Bank Of Scotland. Citizens is poised to become the largest bank based in New England after Fleet Financial Corp. was purchased by Bank of America.
Banknorth has been an aggressive acquirer of small New England banks itself.
Banknorth shares fell 71 cents to $32.06 as of 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. CCBT shares rose $8.41, or 33 percent, to $34.15 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.
Lehman Brothers Inc. advised Banknorth on the purchase and CCBT was advised by Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods Inc.
With Journal staff reports
