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Hometown Financial Group, Inc., the Easthampton, Massachusetts holding company behind bankESB, bankHometown, and TruNorth Bank, has signed a merger agreement to acquire Primary Bank of Bedford, New Hampshire.
The deal comes bundled with a plan for a mutual-to-stock conversion, a structure that signals Primary Bank's ownership is being reorganized from a depositor-controlled mutual form into a publicly tradeable stock company.
What the Deal Is The pairing of an acquisition with a mutual-to-stock conversion is not accidental.
Mutual savings banks cannot issue stock in the conventional sense, so a conversion is typically a prerequisite for a sale of this type.
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