On the heels of two bank acquisitions, People’s United Financial in Bridgeport reported a 37 percent decline in second quarter earnings.
The parent of People’s United Bank said it earned a $16 million, or 4 cents a share, profit in the quarter ended June 30, compared to $25.3 million, or 8 cents a share, a year earlier.
Earnings were dragged down in part by one-time merger and conversion related expenses.
Without those charges, profits in the recent quarter would have been $31.8 million, or 9 cents a share, the bank said.
In April, the company completed its acquisition of Massachusetts-based Butler Bank, which added about $237 million in assets and four bank branches to its portfolio.
Paul D. Burner, People’s United senior executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the significant drivers of the company’s second quarter performance were an improvement in the net interest margin — the difference between what the bank earns on loans and pays on deposits — Â and modest loan growth across its lending businesses.
Those gains were partially offset by an increase in the amount of sour loans the bank had to charge-off. Second quarter net loan charge-offs totaled $17.8 million compared to $9.5 million in the first quarter of 2010.Â
At 11 a.m., People’s United was down 55 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $13.60.
Nonperforming assets at the bank totaled $284.5 million at the end of June, a $37 million increase from March 31.
Separately, People’s announced late Thursday the acquisition of two separate banks in New York and Massachusetts, which will add nearly $3 billion in assets to the banking company.
The lenders People’s has acquired are Bank of Smithtown, a subsidiary of Smithtown Bancorp, based in Hauppauge, N.Y. and RiverBank, a subsidiary of LSB Corp. based in North Andover, Mass.
The Smithtown Bancorp deal is valued at about $60 million, with about half of that amount being paid in cash and the rest in common stock.
The LSB acquisition is an all-cash transaction valued at $96 million.
Smithtown has $2.43 billion in assets, total deposits of $1.87 billion, and 30 branches, 29 of which are on Long Island and one in New York City.
LSB has $807 million in assets, total deposits of $504 million and seven branches, five of which are in the greater Boston area, and two in southern New Hampshire.
People’s leadership has been under pressure from shareholders to make acquisitions, amid billions of dollars of cash it has been holding onto.
In April, People’s pushed out its former CEO Philip R. Sherringham for moving too slowly to build up the lender through acquisitions.
