BUFFALO (WBEN) - On Thursday morning, the CNB Financial Corporation - parent company of BankOnBuffalo - formally announced its acquisition of the Bank of Akron for $215 per share in cash or stock, or roughly $64.5 million in the aggregate.
Bank of Akron serves community residents in Akron, Clarence, Clarence Center, Lancaster and Wilson with six branch locations. When the merger is complete, Bank of Akron will operate as BankOnBuffalo, which possesses branches in Buffalo, Williamsville, Orchard Park and Niagara Falls.
"This is the combination of two community-minded banks, real community banks that will come together to be stronger and be able to deliver more products and services to our relative communities," said Anthony Delmonte, Jr., who serves as the current president and CEO of Bank of Akron, but will change roles to market executive following the merger.
Martin Griffith will continue in his role as BankOnBuffalo president, and he says this merger isn't a normal occurence.
"(This is) very unlike most mergers; in some senses, you have two like-sized banks, really, coming together here, so it's a little bit atypical from a typical merger acquisition," said Griffith. "It's really going to allow us, in our way of thinking, to really be a dominant community bank lender and deposit gatherer, as well as what we can offer on the private banking and wealth management side."
Griffith and Delmonte aren't completely sure what the final product will look like; however, they both noted that there will be the same commitment to customer service that one would expect from a community bank, and that this merge will allow their customer base more options in the future.
"Banks of all sizes have their own legal lending limitations based on their capital size," said Griffith. "So, when this comes to fruition, we'll have a larger capital base to draw from, and some of the customers that the Bank of Akron has worked with for many many years, where they may be running close to their legal lending limits, this will loosen that up and provide much greater lending limits for them as part of a larger organization."
Delmonte explained that they have a tentative schedule for complete conversion and closing, and they're expecting that some time in the late second or early third quarter.
