This Regional Bank Used One Deal to Pave the Way for a Much Bigger One
Over the last two months, Citizens Financial Group (NYSE: CFG) has been opportunistic on the acquisition front, making not one, but two significant depository purchases. First, Citizens announced it was buying 80 branches from HSBC Holdings. Then the bank wheeled around and acquired the $27-billion-asset Investors Bancorp, based in New Jersey, its largest acquisition since Citizens spun off from the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2015.
While the two deals may seem unrelated, Citizens actually used the acquisition of the HSBC branches to make the purchase of Investors Bancorp possible. Let me explain.
Citizens Financial is a $185-billion-asset bank based in Rhode Island whose branch footprint largely extends from New England through the mid-Atlantic, with branches in the Midwest. But Citizens never had a presence in the New York metropolitan area or much of a presence in New Jersey.
Source Fool.com
