Rockland, Mass.-basedIndependent Bank Corp.announced its proposed acquisition of Hyannis, Mass.-based New England Bancorp Inc. on March 17. During the period leadingto the announcement, however,there was another institution based in the state that tried to seal a deal withNew England Bancorp, according to a Form S-4 filed May 6.

In fact, NewEngland Bancorp and that Massachusetts-based institution entered into a confidentialityagreement on Dec. 14, 2015. New England Bancorp had entered into a confidentialityagreement with Independent on Nov. 13, 2015.

On Dec. 28,2015, New England Bancorp adviser Piper Jaffray & Co. provided a preliminaryanalysis to the Massachusetts-based institution for a potential deal with New EnglandBancorp. The values ranged between $10.00 and $12.00 per share.

But on Jan.5, the financial adviser of the Massachusetts-based institution indicated that itslevel of interest would likely be at the lower end of the range contained in thematerials that Piper Jaffray had prepared, even though it remained interested instriking a deal with New England Bancorp.

Eventually,the New England Bancorp board decided it was in the best interests of the companyand its shareholders to mergewith Independent, whose all-stock offer involved a fixed exchange ratio of 0.25share of Independent common stock for each New England Bancorp common share.