Wilmington Trust has been acquired by another domestic US
player, M&T Bank, despite foreign interest in the troubled US
bank and wealth manager.
Wilmington was described by Wall Street analysts as going for a
“bargain” price, of about $350m in stock, after a steadily mounting
backlog of loan losses and quarterly earnings losses.
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M&T, based in Buffalo, New York, includes Warren
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway among its major shareholders.
Wilmington is attractive to M&T because its wealth
management unit has been a consistent earner despite the
credit crisis and problems elsewhere in the bank..
High net worth service to retain Wilmington
branding
Wilmington’s high net worth Wealth Advisory Services business
will become a Wilmington Trust-branded unit of M&T under the
merger plan.
It makes sense to keep the Wilmington Trust branding for its
trust, investment and corporate-client services because they are a
match for anything on offer from the largest financial
institutions, M&T’s chairman and chief executive Robert Wilmers
said.
Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia have been among the
banks to have looked closely at Wilmington in the run-up to this
agreed merger.
Meanwhile, HSBC has reportedly eyed a possible bid for Northern
Trust, Wilmington’s larger rival, although both HSBC and Northern
have declined to comment on these reports.
