Scotiabank eyes U.S. expansion with regional lender stake worth billions

Scotiabank has bought a minority stake in U.S. regional lender KeyCorp in an all-stock deal worth US$2.8 billion on Monday, as the Canadian bank pursues growth outside its saturated home market.

Canadian lenders have been looking for growth opportunities in the U.S. as expansion slows in the domestic banking industry where the top six lenders control more than 90 per cent of the market.

Last year, Scotiabank’s rival Bank of Montreal closed the deal to buy BNP Paribas’ U.S. unit – Bank of the West – for US$16.3 billion, while TD acquired New York-based boutique investment bank Cowen for US$1.3 billion.

The deal also comes as smaller U.S. regional lenders struggle with higher cost of holding deposits and weak loan demand due to elevated borrowing costs.

They are also staring at the chances of tougher capital norms as regulators finalize the roll out of the so-called Basel III Endgame proposal.

Besides the capital raise through the deal, KeyCorp said it would evaluate a repositioning of its available-for-sale securities portfolio to speed up its push for profitability, liquidity and capital improvements.

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The Cleveland, Ohio-based lender in July reported second-quarter profit that fell five per cent and forecast a bigger drop in average loans in 2024. It had total assets of about US$187 billion as of June 30.

Its shares jumped 12% before the bell after Scotiabank priced the offer at US$17.17 per share, a roughly 17.5 per cent premium to KeyCorp’s last closing stock price.

The investment will be done in two stages, with an initial component of 4.9 per cent, followed by an additional 10 per cent. Scotiabank expects the deal to close in fiscal 2025.

“While we continue to be comfortable with our current capital position, we determined that the investment enables Key to accelerate our well-communicated capital and earnings improvement,” KeyCorp CEO Chris Gorman said.