Bar Harbor Bankshares has reached a $143 million deal to buy the Newport, New Hampshire-based Lake Sunapee Bank Group, expanding its footprint throughout northern New England.
Bar Harbor Bankshares announced the deal Thursday, which it said would make it the only bank headquartered in New England with branches in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Lake Sunapee has 35 branches in New Hampshire and Vermont and Bar Harbor has 15 throughout Maine.
For the purchase price, Bar Harbor said it would acquire about 59 percent of the stock in Lake Sunapee, which would continue to operate under that name.
The combined banks would have a combined $3.3 billion in assets, $2.4 billion in loans and $2.2 billion in deposits.
Curtis Simard, Bar Harbor’s CEO, said the merger gives it new opportunities.
“The expansion into New Hampshire and Vermont provides Bar Harbor with similar but complementary markets with favorable demographics, increased access to attractive core deposits and significant revenue and cross-selling opportunities beyond the financial metrics of this transaction,” Simard said in a news release about the transaction.
The companies said they expect the merger to close toward the end of 2016 or beginning of 2017.