Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc., the parent
company of Berkshire Bank, which has offices
in Saratoga Springs, Clifton Park and
Halfmoon, signed an agreement for the
acquisition of privately held Firestone Financial
Corp. as an operating subsidiary of
Berkshire Bank.
Based in Needham, Mass., Firestone is a
longstanding commercial specialty finance
company providing secured installment loan
equipment financing for small and medium sized
businesses.
“Firestone is a terrific fit for Berkshire
Bank,” said Berkshire CEO Michael Daly.
“The strength of the management team and
their conservative approach to credit has
made them a solid performing finance company.
Our strategic decision to complement
our strong asset based lending platform with
this commercial lending business enables us
to further diversify our assets while expanding
our client offerings. We look forward to
adding Firestone’s expertise to our organization,
and taking advantage of the synergies
available through this acquisition.”
George Bacigalupo, Berkshire’s executive
vice president of commercial banking,
said his company is “pleased to expand our
commercial platform with this attractive
acquisition. The addition of Firestone enhances
both the geographic and categorical
diversification of our loan portfolio while
providing a valuable additional growth channel
for us. The business will continue to be
run by Firestone’s talented management
team and their experience and conservative relationship-based approach makes this a
great fit for our organization.”
Firestone CEO David Cohen said with
Berkshire’s resources, “We believe we can
be a significant contributor to the continued
growth and profitability of this organization.
We remain committed to our markets and
customers, and through this partnership we
will be able to offer additional services to help
facilitate their continued growth.”
Firestone has been in business for 50
years and is led by industry veterans Cohen
and Scott A. Cooper, both of whom joined
the company in the mid-1980s. The senior
management team will continue to run the
business following the closing.
As of March 31, Firestone had approximately
$190 million in loans outstanding
spread across multiple industries and market
areas. Borrowers are widely dispersed with no
state comprising more than 11 percent of the
outstanding balance and the largest borrower
representing just 1.2 percent of outstandings.
The weighted average yield on the portfolio
at quarter end was 9.8 percent and its
weighted average remaining maturity was 36
months. The portfolio’s net charge-off rate
has not exceeded 0.23 percent in any of the
last three years.
Berkshire Hills Bancorp has approximately
$7.3 billion in assets and 96 full service
branch offices in Massachusetts, New York,
Connecticut, and Vermont providing personal
and business banking, insurance, and wealth
management services. For more information,
visit www.berkshirebank.com.