Rockland-based Independent Bank Corp. has not yet closed on its recent acquisition of Brighton-based Peoples Federal Bancshares, but the parent of Rockland Trust Co. certainly wouldn’t mind if you kept it in mind – should you look to sell someday.
"It was very opportunistic," President and CEO Christopher Oddleifson said of the Peoples acquisition during a recent investors’ call. "We would love to be considered as an acquirer should any franchise decide to put themselves up for sale, but that’s not something you can really plan for."
The deal with Peoples will extend Rockland Trust’s footprint into the metro Boston area, as Peoples Federal Savings had eight full-service branches, four within the Boston city limits.
Responding to another investor’s question, Oddleifson expressed a little more trepidation about the prospect of buying another firm in the wealth management sector, however.
"I look at wealth management M&A with a lot more scrutiny from the cultural perspective," he said. "These firms, while there are a lot more of those in the metro Boston, Mass./Rhode Island area, because they are typically incredibly entrepreneurial, they typically don’t put themselves up for sale very often."
Net income at Independent Bank Corp. totaled $15.7 million, up 6.7 percent from $14.7 million in the prior quarter. Total assets increased $489 million, or 8.3 percent, from the same period last year to $6.4 billion – partly thanks to the company’s acquisition of Mayflower Bancorp in November 2013.
On an annualized basis, total loans increased $62.4 million, or 5 percent, to $4.9 billion at Sept. 30. Year-over-year, that represents an increase of $391.8 million, or 8.6 percent. While utilization rates declined slightly in the bank’s commercial and industrial portfolio, third quarter growth was strongest in commercial real estate and commercial construction. On the company’s third quarter investors’ call, Chief Financial Officer Robert Cozzone said the majority of Rockland Trust’s construction business was concentrated in smaller residential projects, which ran the gamut from condo projects to single-family developments to apartment complexes.
From the year-ago period, total deposits increased $545.1 million, or 11.5 percent. The securities portfolio increased from the prior quarter by $19.9 million to $733.9 million at Sept. 30, and comprised 11.5 percent of total assets.
Net interest income increased to $49.6 million from $49.1 million in the linked quarter. Non-interest income totaled $17.1 million, an increase of $241,000 or 1.4 percent from the linked quarter. Increased transaction activity boosted deposit account, interchange and ATM fee revenue by $246,000 or 3.2 percent. Investment management income declined slightly – by $120,000 or 2.3 percent – mainly because of seasonal tax prep fees the company generated in the second quarter. Assets under management, however, increased 1.9 percent during the quarter, totaling $2.4 billion at the end of September.
While Independent is fast approaching the $7 billion threshold in terms of asset size, Oddleifson is already thinking bigger.
"It’s not too soon to begin thinking about what does it mean when we cross $10 billion," particularly in terms of increased regulatory burden, he said.
