4 things to watch in Baltimore as BB T's acquisition of Susquehanna plays out
BLOOMBERG
BB&T Corp. is unlikely to close many branches following its acquisition of Susquehanna Bancshares Inc.
- Rick Seltzer[1]
- Staff reporter- Baltimore Business Journal
- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.[2] | Twitter[3]
The $2.5 billion agreement announced last week[4] that will have BB&T Corp[5]. buying Susquehanna Bancshares[6] Inc. is a big deal inside and outside of Baltimore.
We know some details[7] on how Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T (NYSE: BBT) plans to proceed once the deal gets the approval of regulators and stockholders at Lititz, Pa.-based Susquehanna (NASDAQ: SUSQ). But we don't know all of them. Here are four things to watch as the transaction plays out in the Baltimore market.
Will there be branch closings?
Banking industry insiders loved the fit of the deal because BB&T and Susquehanna have very little overlap in their branch territories. BB&T basically runs from Baltimore south down the coast through Florida and west into Kentucky and Alabama with some outposts in Texas. Susquehanna is in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland.
The one place they do share territory is in the Baltimore market. BB&T had 60 offices in the market as of June 30, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Susquehanna had 22.
That begs the question of how many branches could be consolidated, especially after BB&T said last week it hadn't made those decisions.
Branch closures might be few, said Karyl Leggio[8], a professor of finance at Loyola University Maryland's Sellinger School of Business who is on BB&T's Baltimore regional advisory board.
Leggio hasn't studied the banks' branch overlap in depth, but she said she doesn't anticipate many closings given BB&T's aspirations.
"I would be surprised if there's more than a handful," she said. "This isn't a move to consolidate. It is a move to expand."
In the future, she said, "if you have two branches on the same block, I would guess only one would exist."
References
- ^ Rick Seltzer (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Twitter (twitter.com)
- ^ agreement announced last week (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ BB&T Corp (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Susquehanna Bancshares (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ know some details (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Karyl Leggio (feeds.bizjournals.com)