Ending an initial ill-fated venture into neighboring Vermont, Glens Falls, N.Y.-based Arrow Financial Corp. has agreed to sell its remaining branches in that state to Albank Financial Corp.
Under the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, Albank is to pay $8.2 million for the six branches of Arrow subsidiary Green Mountain Bank, Rutland. The $3.4 billion-asset Albank would also receive $110 million in deposits, $112 million in loans, and $45 million in loan servicing.
Arrow also agreed to separately sell Green Mountain's trust division to Vermont National Bank, a subsidiary of Brattleboro-based Vermont Financial Services, for more than $3 million.
The branch deal marks the second foray into Vermont for Albank. In January it completed the acquisition of Marble Financial Corp., also of Rutland.
Albank operates Marble's seven branches as a division of its thrift subsidiary. The Green Mountain branches will be merged into that division. Albank is not buying Green Mountain's headquarters building, but the loans and deposits of the branch there will be consolidated into Albank's Rutland office.
The sales, expected to close in the third quarter, would end a difficult six years in Vermont for Arrow.
In 1990 it bought United Vermont Bancorp and eventually turned it into Green Mountain. About a year later Green Mountain's nonperforming assets soared; Arrow brought in new management to restore profitability at the subsidiary.
And last year it decided to get out. In June it sold the eight eastern branches of Green Mountain, with $95 million in deposits and $42 million in loans, to Mascoma Savings Bank in New Hampshire for $7.6 million. Green Mountain's president, who'd been hired in 1991, resigned a month later.
