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There are “serial” acquirers.
There are “occasional” acquirers.
There are “future” acquirers.
And there are “lurkers.”
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Serial acquirers are just that. It’s part of, if not all, their overall growth strategy. They are very efficient, and they have processes and people for integrating bank a...
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As the CEO of your bank going through the bank merger process, you’ve got a great deal at stake, it’s palpable.
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We have discussed the importance of keeping things quiet internally (see The Savvy Banker newsletter 032 – Bank M&A: Board “Insider Agreements” is it a best practice to get them?”)....
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We had a small but highly effective board of five people.
This is provided for perspective.
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There is no right or wrong answer for the size of your board.
Ours happened to be the minimum size allowed by state statute (we were a state-chartered bank).
We felt that size was more efficient for...
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Any whisper of a potential sale of your bank will decrease the value of the shares and will have your competitors calling your employees and your customers.
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The board has an implicit confidentiality agreement they are always operating under.
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Legend has it, that whenever word is leaked abo...
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You may think it is your general counsel.
It may be.
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But maybe not.
Consider this…
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If your bank’s general counsel is actively involved in bank M&A transactions, particularly sell-side bank M&A transactions, they may be.
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If they are less than actively involved in sell-side bank M&A t...
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We spent time in the last newsletter (The Savvy Banker 029) discussing the first of the top 10 tips for first meetings between you and a potential buyer. Today, we’re going to focus on top tips two through ten.
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We focused on the importance of moving the potential buyer(s) from the “interest s...
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Everybody is counting on you to deliver.
You’ve never done it before.
You don’t quite know what to expect.
Or, how to prepare.
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“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
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Conversations have taken place between the investment bankers and potentially interested parties.
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For this newsletter, I am going to assume you have hired an investment banker.
I am also going to assume the board has chosen to go the route of “strategic approach” in going to the market. (For a refresher on the three types of approaches, see The Savvy Banker 005).
You plan on inviting more t...
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In the six or seven years leading up to the board’s decision to explore whether our bank would be of interest to a buyer, we invited an investment banker as a guest speaker at our Annual Meeting of the Shareholders.
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The importance of having a relationship with an investment banker was instill...
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When you bring serious people to the table, you are signaling to your potential buyer pool,
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“We are serious.”
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Your advisor team are the serious people you are bringing to the table.
Your investment banker, your lawyer, and your accountant.
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For those who may be thinking, “I don’t want...
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In 2017, our bank was eleven years old.
Our loan-to-deposit ratio was running consistently at 100%+.
We had $40 million borrowed on our Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) line of credit.
We had $60 million in bonds that we were holding in an unrealized loss position in at the time.
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The unexpect...
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Every day as a bank CEO, you struggle to balance plates on sticks.
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Competitive threats, talent management, management succession, asset quality, liquidity, cybersecurity threats, interest rates, regulatory compliance, regulatory overreach, capital planning, along with customer and shareholder...