TD to buy First Horizon in US$13.4B expansion in U.S. Southeast
BNN Bloomberg
TD Bank agreed to buy First Horizon for US$13.4 billion, putting its massive capital stockpile to use for its largest deal ever and expanding its presence in the U.S. Southeast.
Toronto-Dominion Bank agreed to buy First Horizon Corp. for US$13.4 billion, putting its massive capital stockpile to use for its largest deal ever and expanding its presence in the U.S. Southeast.
The Canadian bank will pay US$25 a share in cash for Memphis, Tennessee-based First Horizon, according to a statement Monday. The purchase price is about 37 per cent higher than First Horizon’s closing price Friday.
The deal would be Toronto-Dominion’s largest acquisition ever and Chief Executive Officer Bharat Masrani’s boldest move since taking the reins in 2014. The transaction also would continue the the Toronto-based bank’s pattern of growing in the U.S. through acquisitions, with its home country offering limited growth prospects.
The purchase “provides TD with immediate presence and scale in highly attractive adjacent markets in the U.S. with significant opportunity for future growth across the Southeast,” Masrani said in the statement, calling First Horizon “a terrific strategic fit” for his company.
First Horizon has 412 branches and more than 1.1 million individual and business customers across 12 states. It has leading positions in Tennessee and Louisiana; a presence in Florida, the Carolinas and Virginia; and “important footholds” in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston, Toronto-Dominion said.
That would move Toronto-Dominion beyond its current U.S. East Coast footprint and make its U.S. franchise into one of the nation’s top six banks, with about US$614 billion in assets, the bank said. Bryan Jordan, First Horizon’s CEO, will join Toronto-Dominion as vice chair, reporting to Masrani.
