Hometown Financial Group has now completed the merger of Abington Bank and Pilgrim Bank and the combined bank will now function as the subsidiary of Hometown, with $600m in assets.
Image: Hometown Financial completes merger of Abington Bank and Pilgrim Bank. Photo: Courtesy of Allan Lau/Pixabay.
Hometown Financial signed an agreement to acquire Pilgrim Bank’s parent company Pilgrim Bancshares for $53.9m. Under the terms of the deal, shareholders of Pilgrim Bancshares will receive $23 per share. The deal was claimed to represent a 151% appreciation of Pilgrim Bancshares’ book value as of 31 March 2018.
As part of Hometown Financial, Pilgrim Bank will still maintain as a separate banking subsidiary and no branch of Pilgrim is expected to be closed as a result of the merger.
Valued at $263m, the Massachusetts-chartered cooperative bank has branches located in the Massachusetts communities of Cohasset and Marion.
In February, Abington Bank announced that it will merge with Pilgrim Bank. The merger will create a $600m community bank with six branches serving eastern Massachusetts.
Back in November 2016, Abington merged with Holbrook Co-operative Bank and six months later in May 2017, the bank merged with Avon Co-operative Bank. At present, Abington is a $315m bank with three branches serving Abington, Avon and Holbrook.
With the merger between Pilgrim Bank and Abington Bank now completed, the new company was absorbed by Hometown Financial Group.
Andrew Raczka will continue to serve as the combined bank’s president and CEO in addition to his new role as Hometown Financial Group president.
Abington Bank board chairmen, Raczka and Paul Sullivan, will also join Hometown Financial Group board of directors.
In February, Hometown Financial agreed to acquire Millbury Savings Bank. The deal will create a $1bn bank with 15 branches in Worcester County, Massachusetts and Windham County, Connecticut. Closing of the deal is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of this year.
Based in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Hometown Financial is the parent company of bankESB, bankHometown and Abington Bank. The banking franchises provide a complete line of consumer and business deposit and lending products via its 30 branch offices located throughout Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut.