Hopefully, the purchase of CT Financial is what has been pulling down TD's price of late. I do not think that TD, now a broad based financial services company, should trade in line with TWE. With the news of TD's purchase of CT Financial out in the open, perhaps we have bottomed and can begin a retracement. I do not look for a big move until the financials as a whole begin to firm up.
Tuesday August 3 9:00 AM ET
TD Bank To Acquire CT Financial
TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE:TD - news), Canada's fifth-largest, said Tuesday it would acquire CT
Financial Services Inc., the country's largest trust company, for C$8 billion.
The combined entity, to include CT Financial's Canada Trust operations, will become Canada's largest financial services company
in terms of customers, deposits and discount brokerage operations, TD Bank said.
The transaction is subject to approval by Canada's Competition Bureau and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial
Institutions, as well as the shareholders of Montreal-based Imasco Ltd.
The acquisition is part of a larger deal that will see British American Tobacco Plc (BAT) acquire control of Imasco Ltd., which
owns 98.2 percent of CT Financial.
TD said it expects to generate pre-tax expense savings of about 8 percent of TD and CT's combined 1998 expense base, mainly
through the consolidation of head office functions.
A maximum of 4,900 full-time jobs will be affected over the three-year integration period, of which 2,900 full-time positions will be
made redundant, with another 2,000 to be lost due to normal staff turnover, TD Bank said. About two-thirds of the total will be
head office-related and the remainder in branches.
TD said an additional C$60 million of annual revenue will arise within four years from offering its services to CT customers, after
absorbing a one-time pre-tax integration charge of C$475 million. |
