Thai bank in billion dollar takeover deal

Business Week
Thanachart Bank Pcl, a Thai lender partly owned by Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia, will pay about $2.14 billion for Siam City Bank Pcl in a two- step purchase to create Thailand’s fifth-biggest bank. The combined institution will have 660 branches and 18,000 employees, Scotiabank said.

Scotiabank has operations in about 50 countries and does business in 12 Asian markets, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam. The Thai purchase is targetted to add about 5 cents a share to earnings in the first year and 10 cents by the third year. The second stage of the takeover will be completed by July.