Home Savings to Sell 60 N.Y. Branches : Banking: GreenPoint Financial will buy the system for $660 million.

H.F. Ahmanson & Co.’s Home Savings of America unit will sell its New York branch banking system to GreenPoint Financial Corp. for $660 million, the companies said Monday.

The deal involves 60 branches in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County in New York, with $8.3 billion in deposits. It does not include Home Savings’ five loan-origination offices in the New York area, they said.

Irwindale-based Ahmanson, the nation’s largest savings institution and a leading mortgage lender, said the sale advances its strategy of turning Home Savings of America into a full-service consumer bank.

“We will offer our mortgages and other products and services in selected markets nationwide, but we will concentrate our deposit-gathering activities primarily in California, Florida and Texas,” said Charles Rinehart, chairman and chief executive of Ahmanson and Home Savings of America.

For GreenPoint, based in the New York borough of Brooklyn, the acquisition helps achieve its strategic aim of becoming a major consumer bank in the New York market.

“We believe that the Home Savings branches represent the highest-quality deposit franchise potentially available, and will give us the preeminent thrift position in the New York market, with 84 branches and $13.5 billion in deposits,” said Thomas Johnson, chairman and chief executive of GreenPoint.

GreenPoint’s principal subsidiary, GreenPoint Bank, has 24 branches in all those counties but none in Manhattan.

The acquisition will “immediately and substantially” boost earnings by 30%, Johnson said.

He said he does not expect many branch closures or staff cuts. “This is primarily a revenue-driven acquisition for us, so whatever branch consolidations that might result, after we get our arms a little more tightly around it, would be fairly minimal,” Johnson said.

Ahmanson’s Rinehart said his company has no immediate plans to use the proceeds from the sale for acquisitions but said it could use them to repurchase its stock. Any buyback would depend on available opportunities in the coming months, Rinehart said.

The American Banker reported Friday that Ahmanson might use proceeds from the sale to buy a thrift in the San Francisco area.

The deal is expected to close in the third or fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.

GreenPoint’s stock fell as low as $20.875 before closing off $1 at $22.50 on Nasdaq. Ahmanson rose 37.5 cents to $22.625 on the New York Stock Exchange. “There is some dilution to tangible book value, and the market is overreacting,” said Martin Friedman, analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, of the drop in GreenPoint’s stock.