Finance News – KeyCorp Purchases First Niagara Financial in a $4.1B Deal

Finance News – KeyCorp Purchases First Niagara Financial in a .1B Deal, KeyCorp. (KEY) announced on Friday that it will buy First Niagara Financial in a .1 billion cash and stock deal, making it the second-largest bank transaction of the year and one that will expand the Cleveland-based acquirer’s geographic presence throughout the northeastern U.S. The deal will expand KeyCorp’s customer base in the northeastern U.S. and is expected to make the bank the 13th-largest in the U.S., with 5 billion in assets and 0 billion in deposits. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016. First Niagara, based in Buffalo, has billion in assets and billion in deposits, with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts. KeyCorp CEO Beth Mooney told analysts that the deal will establish KeyCorp as the ‘leading bank’ in upstate New York. The per-share consideration for the deal is .40 a share, based on KeyCorp’s common stock price on Thursday. First Niagara closed Thursday at .50 a share. However, KeyCorp said that as part of the deal consideration it will temporarily suspend its substantial share repurchase program with the expectation that it will resubmit a share buyback request when it conducts its annual Federal Reserve stress test in the spring of next year.,