Royal Bank of Canada Buys Alabama National for $1.6 Billion
Published September 6th, 2007
Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender, agreed to buy Alabama National BanCorporation for $1.6 billion in cash and stock, its biggest acquisition in six years.
Royal Bank offered $80 a share, or 51 percent more than Alabama National’s share price yesterday. The Birmingham-based bank has 103 branches in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and would increase Royal Bank’s U.S. outlets by about a third, the banks said today in a statement.
Canadian banks, barred from merging at home, are taking advantage of a stronger dollar to step up their acquisitions abroad. Royal Bank bought Atlanta-based Flag Financial Corp. in December for $433.5 million, and added 39 branches in Alabama from AmSouth Bancorp. Bank of Nova Scotia, the second-biggest bank, agreed last week to buy Chile’s Banco del Desarrollo for about $1.03 billion.
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