Rockville Financial To Merge With United Financial

(RTTNews) - Rockville Financial, Inc. (RCKB), bank holding company for Rockville Bank, and United Financial Bancorp, Inc. (UBNK), bank holding company for United Bank, Thursday announced signing a definitive merger agreement in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $369 million, based on the closing price of Rockville Financial common stock on Thursday.

The new company will be managed by a 20-person Board of Directors, comprised of an equal number of directors of both the companies. The Chief Executive Officer will be Rockville's William Crawford, IV and United's Jeffrey Sullivan will serve as president, and Rockville's Eric Newell will be chief financial officer. Further, Chairman of the Board will be Robert Stewart, Jr and Raymond Lefurge, Jr will be named as vice chairman of the Board. In addition, United's Richard Collins will retire and provide consulting services for one year.

The shareholders of United Financial will receive 1.3472 shares of Rockville Financial common stock for each share of United Financial. Upon closing, Rockville Financial shareholders will own approximately 49 percent of stock of the merged company and United Financial shareholders will own approximately 51 percent.

The merger is expected to generate approximately $17.6 million in annual cost savings and is also expected to be 30 percent accretive to stand-alone 2015 earnings of both the entities.

The transaction is expected to closed by mid-year 2014. Upon closing, Rockville Bank will adopt the United name and the holding company will be United Financial Bancorp, Inc. Trading will continue on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "UBNK."

RBC Capital Markets, LLC is serving as the lead financial advisor to Rockville Financial, Inc. and rendered a fairness opinion in connection with the transaction.

Thursday, RCKB closed at $13.62 on the Nasdaq. Currently, UBNK is trading in the pre-market hours up 5.99 percent, or $0.96, at $17.00 on the Nasdaq.