M&T Bank to acquire Hudson City, 135 branches for $3.7b

In the second billion-dollar merger involving a Buffalo-based bank announced since July 2011, M&T Bank Corp. said Aug. 27 it will acquire Hudson City Bancorp Inc. and subsidiary Hudson City Savings Bank for $3.7 billion.

M&T will acquire all 135 Hudson City branches, including 97 in New Jersey, 29 in downstate New York and nine in Fairfield County, Conn. Included are at least 10 branches located in Westchester County.

Buffalo-based M&T, which currently has $80.8 billion in assets, expects to take on roughly $25 billion in deposits and $28 billion in loans as a result of the merger.

Hudson City, based in Paramus, N.J., currently has $43.6 billion in assets.

Under the terms of the agreement, each Hudson City (NASDAQ: HCBK) share will receive consideration valued at 0.08403 of an M&T (NYSE: MTB) share in the form of either M&T stock or cash.

The estimated $3.7 billion value of the acquisition is based on the closing price of M&T stock on Aug. 24. The deal has been approved by the boards of directors of each company, and is subject to regulatory conditions and approvals and approval by M&T”™s and Hudson City”™s common shareholders.

This past spring, First Niagara Financial Group, which is based in Buffalo and owns First Niagara Bank, completed a $1 billion acquisition of more than 100 HSBC USA Bank branches located in New York and Connecticut.