Topic: How To Invest

The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, January 20, 2023

Article Excerpt

BANK OF MONTREAL, $132.29, Toronto symbol BMO, remains a buy. This week, U.S. banking regulators approved the bank’s acquisition of California-based Bank of the West from France’s BNP Paribas. Bank of the West provides a variety of retail and commercial banking services to over 1.8 million customers through 514 branches in 24 states, mainly in the Western and Midwestern regions of the U.S. It has assets of $105 billion U.S. and customer deposits totalling $89 billion U.S. Bank of Montreal will pay $16.3 billion U.S. for this business when it completes the transaction on February 1, 2023. Eliminating overlapping operations should let the bank cut $860 million (Canadian) from its annual costs in the first year. To help finance the deal, as well as comply with increased capitalization requirements in Canada, Bank of Montreal has sold a total of $6.35 billion of new common shares through public offerings and private placements. Bank of Montreal is still a buy. Bank of Montreal recent coverage: Hotline for…