Webster, Independent may purchase Brookline

(Corrected, 9:15 a.m.)
BROOKLINE, Mass. – Webster Financial Corp. and Independent Bank Corp. have been identified as part of a list of potential suitors for Brookline Bancorp., the holding company for the 18-branch Brookline Bank.
Sterne Agee analyst Matthew Kelley said in a note to clients that Webster (NYSE: WBS) and Independent (Nasdaq: INDB), as well as mutual savings banks such as Eastern Bank and Middlesex Savings Bank, could put in a bid for Brookline, according to a report on the Dow Jones Newswires last week.
Kelley’s note followed Brookline Bancorp’s (Nasdaq: BRKL) disclosure recently that it had rejected a takeover offer in February. Many analysts who believed the bank wasn’t for sale right now said the new development indicated that some Brookline executives were keeping an open mind.
Brookline did not identify the company that made the bid.
Company Chairman Richard Chapman Jr. resigned following the rejected offer, the Dow Jones Newswires said. In a letter to the board of directors, Chapman said the decision by the board at a Feb. 3 meeting “was misguided and emotion-driven, and that, even more overriding, the process by which the decision was made was deeply flawed.”
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Brookline said 10 directors voted to reject the offer and two directors voted to accept it.
Kelley, the Sterne Agee analyst, said banks such as Waterbury, Conn.-based Webster and Independent Bank, the parent of Rockland, Mass.-based Rockland Trust, might be interested in snapping up Brookline – which has more than $2.6 billion in assets – for its excess capital. Private equity groups could also be interested, he said.
He said the company could be worth more than $12 a share, factoring in a 10 percent premium on the company’s $275 million of excess capital.
Webster Financial Corp. (NYSE: WBS) – a $17.8 billion company based in Waterbury, Conn. – is the holding company for Webster Bank N.A., a financial services company with more than 181 branches including13 branches in Rhode Island. Additional information is available at www.WebsterOnline.com.
Rockland Trust Co., a $2.8 billion community bank serving southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, is the sole bank subsidiary of Independent Bank Corp. (Nasdaq: INDB). Additional information is available at www.RocklandTrust.com.
The headline on an earlier version of this article was incorrect.