KEENE, N.H., Jan. 2, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Granite State Bankshares, Inc. (Nasdaq:GSBI) announced today that Granite Bank, its wholly owned subsidiary, has completed the previously announced purchase of the two branch offices of Olde Port Bank, a division of Webster Bank, located in the city of Portsmouth and the town of Hampton, both in Rockingham County, New Hampshire. Webster Bank is the subsidiary of Webster Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:WBST). Granite is acquiring approximately $44 million in deposit and repurchase agreement liabilities, and approximately $43 million in loans in connection with the transaction.
Granite State Bankshares, Inc. headquartered in Keene, New Hampshire, is the holding company of Granite Bank, a New Hampshire chartered commercial bank. Including the acquisition of these two branches, Granite Bank operates 19 branch-banking offices throughout southern New Hampshire in Cheshire, Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham and Strafford Counties. Granite Bank is the largest independent bank headquartered in New Hampshire. The branch purchase is expected to be accretive to earnings in 2001.
Certain statements contained herein are not based on historical facts and are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by reference to a future period or periods, or by the use of forward-looking terminology, such as "may," "will," "believe," "expect," "estimate," "anticipate," "continue," or similar terms or variations on those terms, or the negative of those terms. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, those related to the economic environment, particularly in the market areas in which the company operates, competitive products and pricing, fiscal and monetary policies of the U.S. Government, changes in government regulations affecting financial institutions, including regulatory fees and capital requirements, changes in prevailing interest rates, acquisitions and the integration of acquired businesses, credit risk management, asset-liability management, the financial and securities markets and the availability of and costs associated with sources of liquidity.
The Company wishes to caution readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company wishes to advise readers that the factors listed above could affect the Company's financial performance and could cause the Company's actual results for future periods to differ materially from any opinions or statements expressed with respect to future periods in any current statements. The Company does not undertake and specifically declines any obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions which may be made to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events.