United Financial Bancorp came out with a higher bid – and some fighting words – in its battle with rival Berkshire Bank of Pittsfield to acquire Worcester’s Commonwealth National Bank (CNB) late this afternoon. West Springfield-based United has upped its offer $.25 a share to $10.25, for a deal now totaling $23.4 million, in the hopes of preventing the marriage of Commonwealth and Berkshire.
United CEO Richard B. Collins also included a stinging retort to last week’s announcement that Commonwealth and Berkshire would continue in their plan to merge under Berkshire’s revised offering of $9.23 per share. Berkshire originally announced a merger agreement with Commonwealth for $8.50 per share. United came back with an offer of $10 per share, fixed, an offer it deemed "superior." Last week, Commonwealth accepted Berkshire’s revised offer, saying in part the prospects for a successful merger were better with Berkshire and that a floating exchange rate based partially on Berkshire’s share price offered CNB shareholders a potentially better deal.
In a letter to Commonwealth’s CEO Charles Valade and Board Chairman Cary J. Corkin, Collins refutes Commonwealth’s rejection of its original offer point-by-point, and offered some insight into previously private talks between United and Commonwealth in the months leading up to the current bidding war.
According to the letter, for example, Commonwealth’s advisors had shot down a previous United Bank overture in February, saying they would refuse any acquisition offer that came in under $12.75 per share.
"You can imagine our surprise, then, to learn, less than three months later, that CNB had entered into a deal valued at $8.50 [with Berkshire]," Collins said in his letter.
The letter continues to tear at Commonwealth’s other assertions, including what Collins called "gratuitous criticism" that questioned United’s ability to complete a merger.
"There were several statements in the press release that do not tell the whole story," Collins said. "We feel it is important to set the record straight so that CNB shareholders know of our history of earlier discussions with CNB’s board and also to reiterate our ability to successfully integrate our two banks into one extraordinary banking franchise."
