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8 Hartford Business Journal • September 10, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Reporter's Notebook Gregory Seay | gseay@HartfordBusiness.com Real Estate, Economic Development/Construction, Banking & Finance and Manufacturing BANKING & FINANCE West Hartford the apple of People's United's eye P eople's United Bank Chairman/CEO John "Jack'' Barnes quickly acknowledged in July the close personnel ties between his $44 billion-asset Bridgeport super- regional bank and much smaller $3.1 billion-asset Farmington Bank, which People's intends to acquire for $544 million. Barnes noted that some of Farmington Bank's senior staff are ex-People's executives. But Barnes' chief lieutenant and Peo- ple's United Bank's presi- dent, Jeff Tengel, cited a more tantalizing reason for his bank's desire to pursue the acquisition set to close before year-end. "We like Farmington Bank's presence, especially in West Hartford,'' Ten- gel said during a recent sitdown in his upper-floor office at People's United's headquarters at 850 Main St. "It's a growing part of the Hartford market. We weren't as strong there as we'd like to be." "Farmington Bank has a lot of really good customer relationships that we don't have," added Tengel, a former PNC banker in Ohio, his home state. People's, founded in 1842, has three West Hartford branch offices vs. two for 167-year-old Farmington Bank. Ironical- ly, both banks have branch- es within a stone's throw of the other in the town's Elmwood section; one of them may have to close. West Hartford appeals to bankers — it's home to 25 bank branches with $2.9 billion in deposits spread among a dozen lenders — for several reasons. First, it's Hartford's most populous suburb, with more than 60,000 residents, many of whom are college educated and who work — or once did — as entrepreneurs, engineers, physicians, lawyers, educators, among others, and possess houses, commercial property and other assets. West Hartford, too, is home to a number of private and public businesses, nonprofits and local, state and federal offices and agencies — all potential new customers and opportunities for People's United to cross-sell its commercial lending products and services to Farmington Bank customers, Tengel said. In particular, People's has in recent years invested considerable time, money and energy building up its wealth-management and private- banking services, target- ing its most well-heeled customers. For a time, People's United and its main in- state rival, Waterbury's Webster Financial Corp., were neck-and-neck in rac- ing to establish a wealth- management desk. At one point, People's recruited nearly all of Webster's top private-banking leaders to set up shop there. Yet, as it pursues new cus- tomer relationships, Tengel says People's continues to promote "bedrock value propositions'' with new and existing patrons via whatever service channel customers choose — in per- son in branches, or remotely via ATMs and mobile/smartphone apps. "We don't view our customers as just another transaction,'' he said. "We're going to service the customer in whichever channel they want … ." People's United, too, is among only a handful of New England banks with Stop & Shop super- market locations, with 84 in Connecticut and 96 in New York, including 33 acquired on Long Island through a recent acquisi- tion. "It has worked out well,'' Tengel said. "It has been a different way to connect with our customers.'' In commercial lending, Tengel said People's faces the challenge of "a lot of competitors,'' including debt funds and other nonbank lenders/investors, all chas- ing a limited pool of quali- fied borrowers. Although big by Con- necticut banking standards, in terms of assets and cus- tomer and branch counts, People's advantage is that it is much smaller than Bank of America, JPMor- gan Chase, Wells Fargo and other money-center' banks, Tengel said. "It's important that our customers feel like they're dealing with a big bank,'' he said, "but still keep that level of personal customer service." DEAL WATCH Oshkosh Trucks' E. Granby renewal Wisconsin heavy-vehicle builder Oshkosh Truck Corp. has renewed its 20-year-old lease on a 21,200-square-foot building in East Granby. Oshkosh, maker of heavy commercial and military trucks, since 1998 has leased the free-standing building at 35 Nicholson Road from landlord B&B Parallel, its owner since 2007, according to the tenant's Hartford broker Sentry Commercial. Oventrop expands in E. Granby German valve maker Oventrop Corp. renewed and expanded its lease in East Granby's Airport Business Center. Oventrop renewed with landlord 29 Kripes Road Associates LLC for an extra 4,140 square feet at 29 Kripes Road, where it previously occupied about 8,100 square feet since 2006, according to exclusive Hartford broker Sentry Commercial. Oventrop's thermostatic valves, controls and pressure regulators are used in heating, cooling and sanitation systems. $495K W. Hartford sale A 10,365-square-foot West Hartford industrial building that houses tool distributor Apostle- Nelson Inc. sold for $495,000. Buyers South Meadows No. 9 LLC and Maffe Investments LLC bought 11 Sherman St. on 0.73 acres from 11 Sherman Street LLC, said seller's broker Sentry Commercial. Colliers International represented the buyers. Bank market share leaders in West Hartford Deposits Bank Branches (as of 2017) Bank of America 5 $568.9M Webster Bank 4 $510.3M Santander Bank 3 $644.7M People's United Bank 3 $343.6M Farmington Bank 2 $233.9M TD Bank 2 $201.4M Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Jeff Tengel, president of Bridgeport's People's United Bank and parent People's United Financial. HBJ PHOTO | GREGORY SEAY 35 Nicholson Road, East Granby. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED 29 Kripes Road, East Granby. 11 Sherman St., West Hartford. BANKING & FINANCE CT banks' profits up 36% through first half of 2018 The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. recently released its state banking per- formance data, which show Connecticut's 40 federally insured banks saw their collective profits rise 35.6 percent during the first six months of 2018 compared to the year-ago period. Here are some other performance metrics. 2Q 2018 2Q 2017 Total No. of FDIC-insured banks 40 42 Number of unprofitable banks 1 2 Net income (year-to-date) $571M $421M Total assets $112.5B $108.6B Total loans & leases $82.7B $79.6B Nonperforming assets to assets 0.56% 0.61% Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.