Berkshire Hills Bancorp completed its acquisition of SI Financial Group and merged Savings Institute and Trust Company into Berkshire Bank.

“We are excited to welcome Savings Institute’s customers, employees and shareholders to the Berkshire family,” said Berkshire CEO Richard Marotta. “The Savings Institute team has been receptive and worked cohesively with our teams as we moved towards closing. We look forward to continuing our work with our new colleagues as we bring our full suite of products and expanded resources to their markets. Our next steps include completing the integration of Savings Institute following the planned systems conversion in October.”

Berkshire issued approximately 5.7 million common shares as merger consideration in the stock for stock exchange detailed in the merger agreement. The total stock consideration is valued at approximately $176 million. Including the new shares issued, Berkshire’s outstanding common stock has increased to approximately 51.2 million shares, resulting in a market capitalization of approximately $1.6 billion.

With this acquisition, Berkshire adds eighteen branches in Eastern Connecticut and five branches in Rhode Island to its offerings. The merger also adds approximately $1.7 billion in assets and $1.3 billion in low cost deposits.

Headquartered in Boston, Berkshire Hills Bancorp is the parent of regional bank Berkshire Bank, which operates 132 banking offices in seven Northeastern states and has $13.9 billion in assets.