Berkshire Ups Offer For Commonwealth National

Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. has upped its offer to buy CNB Financial Corp., parent company of Worcester's Commonwealth National Bank, to $9.23 per share in response to a competing offer made by United Financial Bancorp.

Berkshire and Commonwealth amended their merger agreement to reflect the new price, according to a statement from bank officials this afternoon.

Commonwealth and Pittsfield-based Berkshire Hills announced the merger, which was an all-stock deal for $8.50 per share, worth $19.5 million on May 11. Two days later, United Financial Bancorp. of Springfield proposed a combined cash and stock offer of $10 a share, worth $22.8 million.

Today's announcement included the statement that Commonwealth's financial advisors and board of directors had determined that United's proposal is not a superior to the one from Berkshire Hills.

The deal is still subject to approval by CNB's stockholders, as well as state and federal regulatory agencies. The merger is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2009, according to Commonwealth and Berkshire Hills officials.

Berkshire Hills CFO David Gonci told the Worcester Business Journal this afternoon that his bank was "very pleased that Commonwealth reaffirmed our partnership and wants to complete the merger."

When asked what Berkshire's reaction would be to another bid from United, Gonci said, "I'm not going to speculate on what another bank is going to do."

Commonwealth's President and CEO Charles Valade and United CEO Richard Collins could not be reached immediately for comment.

Click here to read a previous article about United's counter-offer.