First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FNFG) posted a loss during the second quarter thanks mainly to the costs associated with its acquisition of HSBC’s upstate New York branch network.
Buffalo–based First Niagara completed the acquisition of the 195 branches in Upstate, Westchester County, and Connecticut in May. Costs connected to the deal totaled more than $135 million.
That helped lead to a loss to common shareholders of $18.5 million, or 5 cents a share, during the second quarter, compared with net income to common shareholders of $13.6 million, or 5 cents a share, a year earlier.
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Operating income available to shareholders, which excludes acquisition costs, was $59.1 million for the quarter, down from $71.2 million in the second quarter of 2011.
First Niagara said it was able to retain more than 97 percent of the deposit balances it gained in the HSBC acquisition. The bank has nearly 430 branches with $38 billion in assets, $29 billion in deposits, and about 6,000 employees in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
For more on this story, see the Aug. 3 issue of The Central New York Business Journal.
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com


