As the relatively quiet year for U.S. bank M&A winds down, the fourth quarter will mark the busiest period of 2022 when it comes to $200 million-plus transactions.
Through Dec. 6, four U.S. bank deals with values above $200 million have been announced in the fourth quarter, and another deal — NBT Bancorp Inc.'s $199.6 million acquisition of Salisbury Bancorp Inc. — sat right below that metric. The second and third quarters each had three deals with values above $200 million at announcement and the first quarter only had two such deals.
Slew of largest US bank deals come in Q4
Moreover, among the 20 largest U.S. bank deals announced so far this year, six have been announced in the fourth quarter.
Prosperity Bancshares Inc. kicked off the $200 million-plus deals in the fourth quarter with its dual deal announcements Oct. 11. Its pending buys of First Bancshares of Texas Inc. and Lone Star State Bancshares Inc. rank as the fifth-largest and 10th-largest U.S. bank deals announced year-to-date, respectively.
Peoples Bancorp Inc. followed with its Oct. 25 announcement that it will acquire Limestone Bancorp Inc. in what is the 11th-largest U.S. bank deal announced so far this year.
November saw two of the 20 largest U.S. bank deals year-to-date: Washington Federal Inc.'s $654.4 million announced acquisition of Luther Burbank Corp. and Byline Bancorp Inc.'s $165.0 million deal for Inland Bancorp Inc.
The Washington Federal-Luther Burbank deal is the third U.S. bank megadeal — a deal with a value above $500 million at announcement — announced this year.
NBT Bancorp's Dec. 5 announcement that it plans to acquire Salisbury Bancorp in a deal worth $199.6 million at announcement ranks as the 13th-largest U.S. bank deal announced in 2022.
Uptick in announced deal value
While the number of deals announced so far in the fourth quarter lags well below the previous three quarters, the larger size of the deals in the current quarter has boosted deal value.
Quarter-to-date announced deal value through Dec. 6 sat at $2.13 billion among 26 bank deals, above the second quarter which had $1.96 billion in announced deal value among 35 deals.
The first quarter saw $15.18 billion in announced deal value, but Toronto-Dominion Bank's announced acquisition of First Horizon Corp. made up 90% of that total. Excluding that megadeal, announced deal value in the first quarter stood at $1.51 billion.
