NEW YORK: M&T Bank Corp will use capital in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as it also invests in supporting customers, says chief financial officer Daryl Bible – comments that come at a time when M&T’s peers are playing down their M&A appetite for fear of stockholder punishment.
“There are deals in there, that we hypothetically model, that work in our footprint,” Bible said during a Goldman Sachs Group Inc financial-services conference.
“And there’s other deals that don’t work, just because of our valuation level.”
M&T is mindful of investors’ concerns that the value of a transaction may not be justified if it takes too long to earn back the tangible book value, Bible said.
M&T spends a lot of time analysing the earn-back period in possible deals, and so far has been focused on buying back shares, he added.
“I think I’ve asked every bank about its capital priorities, and I think you’re the first one to list M&A – it’s not the last,” Goldman managing director Ryan Nash said during the talk.
Bank M&A has picked up in recent months as regulators become more lenient in approving transactions, with Fifth Third Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares Inc striking deals at a scale the industry hasn’t seen in years. — Bloomberg
