First Horizon Shares Crash After TD Bank Deal “Terminated”

This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge. 

First Horizon Corp. shares plunged 37% at the cash open in New York, the most significant decline since September 2008.

Bloomberg reported First Horizon held a conference call earlier today, seeking to calm investors after the merger agreement with Toronto-Dominion Bank was “terminated.” The regional bank said it has ‘stable funding’ and adequate capital.

“We have seen no notable changes to our outflows. It’s been consistent since the beginning of March,” Chief Financial Officer Hope Dmuchowski said.

Earlier, we reported TD “terminated” a merger agreement with First Horizon on unspecified regulatory issues.

Perhaps the termination could be due to a series of regional bank failures.

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First Horizon Corp. shares crashed in premarket trading after Toronto-Dominion Bank published a statement outlining how a deal to purchase the Memphis-based bank has been “terminated.” The announcement comes after multiple regional banking failures.

The lenders said they both “entered into a mutual agreement” to terminate their originally announced merger agreement, announced on February 28, 2022. TD said it “does not have a timetable for regulatory approvals to be obtained for reasons unrelated to First Horizon. Because there is uncertainty as to when and if these regulatory approvals can be obtained, the parties mutually agreed to terminate the merger agreement.”

Under the terms of the termination agreement, Canada’s second-biggest bank will make a $200 million cash payment to First Horizon on top of a $25 million reimbursement payment.

As a result of the termination, shares of First Horizon plunged 52% in premarket trading.

TD’s initial plan was to purchase First Horizon for $13.4 billion. It would’ve allowed the Canadian bank to expand its presence in the Southeast with over 400 new bank branches and 1.1 million individual and business customers across 12 states.

However, the merger termination comes as the US regional banking system is in turmoil. First Republic Bank earlier this week was the second-biggest bank failure in US history and the fourth regional lender to collapse since March after Silvergate, SVB, and Signature Bank.

POWELL: U.S. BANKING SYSTEM IS SOUND AND RESILIENT

Narrator: we just had over half a trillion $ in bank failures in the past month pic.twitter.com/YvhloFIGIX

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 3, 2023

Meanwhile, it was just after the close on Wednesday, no more than two hours after Jerome Powell openly lied to the American People during the FOMC press conference stating without a hint of irony that the US banking system is “sound and resilient,” that PacWest Bancorp shares collapsed on a report (since confirmed) that the troubled California bank is seeking either a buyer or more capital.