The biggest shareholder in M&T Bank Corp. — Allied Irish Bank plc — might divest its 24.5% stake in the Buffalo, N.Y.-based financial institution to pursue a bigger deal, possibly in Eastern Europe.
Allied Irish CEO Eugene Sheehy raised that scenario in an Aug. 1 conference call. Business First of Buffalo reports that Sheehy said the company has "four main pillars in the bank — Ireland, Poland, England and capital markets — and that M&T was an investment that stood outside those four key strategic areas of activity."
Despite not fitting into Allied Irish targeted markets necessarily, M&T is no slouch in the banking sector with about $3.7 billion in assets and a market cap of $11.25 billion. Lately, it has been focusing on getting larger in its home base — the Northeast region. M&T, acquired Partners Trust Financial Group Inc., which has 33 branches in six upstate New York counties and has about $3.7 billion in assets., for about $555 million in July.
The stake in M&T fell into Allied Irish's hands in September 2002 via a sale of Allfirst Financial to the Buffalo bank. In exchange for Allfirst, Allied Irish received $2.2 billion in M&T stock and $886 million in cash. —Gerald Magpily
See Business First of Buffalo via BizJournals.com
Tags: M&T, Allied Irish, banking, m&a, divestitures
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