CHARTER ONE Buyout by Citizens Financial is approved

Charter One has several offices in the Valley.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Cleveland-based Charter One Financial Inc. announced Monday that its shareholders have approved its buyout by Citizens Financial Group.
Charter One, which employs 8,400, including 2,500 in Cleveland, is being purchased for $10.5 billion cash by Citizens Financial Group, a unit of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Locally, Charter One has offices in Liberty, Austintown, Boardman, Girard and Warren.
The deal, approved by federal regulators in May, calls for Charter One shareholders to receive $44.50 in cash for each share they own.
Citizens plans to keep the Charter One name for about 450 branches in the Midwest. That means customers won't have to worry about new checks, account numbers or ATM cards. Charter One's 160 East Coast branches will change to the Citizens name.
Combined with Royal's Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Financial Group Inc., the merged bank would become the seventh largest in the United States. That's based on deposits, estimated at $87 billion, and assets, estimated at $129 billion, the banks say.
Shares of Charter One closed up 1 cent at $44.38 on the New York Stock Exchange.