North Carolina-based regional bank BB&T (trading symbol BBT) has agreed to purchase Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks (STI) for approximately $28 billion.
WASHINGTON. News of a surprising and impressively large regional bank merger hit the business wires hard Thursday morning. Big North Carolina-based regional bank BB&T (originally Branch Banking and Trust, trading symbol BBT) announced its plan to purchase Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks (STI).
The resulting transaction, valued at some $28 billion, would create the 6th biggest US bank. Analysts and financial journalists regard this as the biggest M&A deal in the US banking sector since the darkest days of the Great Recession.
Both banks expect this just-announced deal to close in or around Q4 2019. Some key points follow.
SunTrust shares rose 10 percent in pre-market trading before backing off somewhat. As of 2:30 p.m. ET, shares are trading just under $64 per share, a 5+ percentage point gain thus far on Thursday. The share price of an acquired company frequently rises above the approximate offering price. Traders may anticipate the emergence of a competing bid.
While shares of the acquiring company frequently drop in price after such an announcement, BBT shares actually rose somewhat on the news. BBT shares currently trade at $49.70, up 1.16 points on the day thus far.
