NBT, Alliance Shareholders Approve Merger

The merger of NBT Bancorp (NBT) and Alliance Financial Group (ALNC) is nearly official.

Shareholders for both companies approved the deal in separate meetings this week, NBT and Alliance said in a press release Thursday. The companies expect to complete the merger tomorrow. NBT will convert Alliance's branches on Monday.

NBT, which is based in Norwich, N.Y., agreed to pay $230 million for Alliance last October. The acquisition will increase NBT's total assets by 23%, to $7.4 billion.

"We are excited to bring together our two community-minded upstate New York banks," Martin Dietrich, NBT's president and chief executive, said in the release. "We share a commitment to our customers and to banking fundamentals that will create an even stronger local banking resource to benefit the markets we serve and create long-term value for our stockholders."

Following the merger, Jack Webb, Alliance's chairman, president and CEO, will become NBT's executive vice president of strategic support. Webb and two other Alliance directors will join NBT's board.

Richard Shirtz, Alliance's commercial banking group manager, will become NBT's regional president for the Syracuse area, where Alliance is based.

Alliance warned in December that the merger would force nearly 100 job cuts.