Valley National (VLY)-Bank Leumi USA Deal to Wrap up Soon

Valley National Bancorp’s VLY deal to acquire Bank Leumi USA, the U.S. arm of Bank Leumi Le-Israel B.M., is expected to close on Apr 1. This was announced by Bank Leumi Le-Israel in a filing with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The filing stated that all the necessary approvals, both shareholders and regulatory as well as “all conditions precedent included in the merger agreement” have been complied with. It must be noted that 98% of Valley National shareholders had voted in favor of issuing shares pursuant to the merger in the Special Meeting of Shareholders this January.

The deal, announced in September 2021, will broaden Valley National’s commercial product offerings and expand its technology and venture capital banking business. This will, thereby, solidify its position as a top-tier, relationship-focused commercial bank. The pro-forma company, which will be formed as a result of the merger, will be the 29th largest publicly traded U.S. bank by assets.

At the time of the announcement, it was noted that per the deal terms, shareholders of Bank Leumi would receive 3.8025 shares of Valley National common stock and $5.08 in cash (subject to specified adjustments) for each of their shares held. The estimated value of the transaction is $1,148 million. Following the completion of the deal, Bank Leumi Le-Israel B.M. will get a stake of 14% of Valley’s common stock. The transaction is expected to be 7% accretive to Valley National’s 2023 earnings on a fully phased-in basis. Tangible book value is expected to dilute by almost 1% with an earn-back period of approximately a year.

Our Viewpoint

Valley National has been strengthening its footprint and product suites as well as expanding inorganically through strategic buyouts. Last year, the company acquired Westchester Bank Holding Corporation and Dudley Ventures. These along with the company’s past acquisitions have expanded its footprints and resulted in revenue and cost synergies.

Relatively low-interest rates are a concern for Valley National. Also, persistently increasing costs might hurt the company’s bottom line to an extent.

In the past six months, shares of Valley National have gained 6.1% compared with a 13.4% rally for the industry it belongs to.
 

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

VLY currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Recently, the merger agreement between M&T Bank Corporation MTB and People's United Financial, Inc. PBCT received approval from the Federal Reserve. In February, the companies had mutually agreed to extend their merger agreement deadline to Jun 1, 2022, from the initial timeline of Feb 21, 2022, as they awaited the green light from the Fed.

The $7.6-billion deal with PBCT is anticipated to expand M&T Bank’s presence in the Northeast and complement top-tier deposit share in core markets.

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