Report: Hudson Valley Holding Corp On Block

Hudson Valley Holding Corp.,

which operates a small regional bank in the New York City suburbs, is on the auction block according to unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg Friday. Hudson traded recently up 19 percent to $22.51 a share. The Yonkers, N.Y.-based bank holding company, with assets of about $3.23 billion and 18 branches, could get sold to Ramapo, N.Y.-based Sterling Bancorp

or People's United Financial Inc.

of Bridgeport, Conn., according to the news agency. Hudson's net income for the period ended June 30 fell by about a third and both its net interest income and loan portfolio were nearly flat. The company operates its branch network in suburban Westchester County. People's, with assets of $33.92 billion, operates about 400 branches in much of New England and New York, while Sterling has assets of about $7 billion and about two dozen branches in the New York Metropolitan area. Hudson Valley is working with Stifel Financial Corp. and Keefe Bruyette & Woods Inc. on the sale, according to Bloomberg. People's and Sterling were each down about 0.7 percent recently.