Topic: How To Invest

The Successful Investor Hotline – Thursday, December 23, 2021

Article Excerpt

BANK OF MONTREAL, $135.58, Toronto symbol BMO, remains a buy. Canada’s fourth-largest bank by market cap is now buying 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 deposits of $89 billion U.S. The new operations complement Bank of Montreal’s current U.S. banking operations—BMO Harris Bank—which mainly operate in Chicago and the U.S. Midwest. In the most recent quarter, the U.S. operations supplied 22% of the bank’s earnings. Bank of Montreal will pay $16.3 billion U.S. for Bank of the West. To put that amount in context, the bank’s market cap (the value of all outstanding shares) is $87.7 billion (Canadian). It expects to complete the transaction by December 31, 2022. The bank will finance the deal mainly with its own excess capital…