What happened
Florida-based community bank FCB Financial Holdings (NYSE: FCB) agreed to be bought by regional bank Synovus Financial Corp (SNV 0.71%) on Tuesday.
Generally speaking, when a buyout is announced, the acquirer's stock tends to drop a bit but the acquisition target rises significantly. However, after the deal was announced, FCB Financial plunged; as of 3 p.m. EDT on the day of the announcement, shares of the bank were down by nearly 12%. In addition, Synovus is down by more than 9%. It seems fair to say that the market isn't too happy with this acquisition all around.
So what
Here's what is particularly unusual about this acquisition. FCB Financial agreed to be bought in an all-stock transaction at a discount to its share price before the announcement. This is extremely rare -- generally, the acquiring company pays a premium.
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Under the terms of the deal, FCB shareholders will get 1.055 shares of Synovus for each share of FCB they own. Based on both banks' closing prices on Monday, this means that Synovus is getting a 1.8% discount on the purchase.
Now what
Synovus expects the acquisition to close by the first quarter of 2019. It will make the bank among the five largest regional banks in the southeastern U.S., and Synovus expects to realize $40 million in synergies by 2020.
It's not at all surprising that FCB's shareholders are disappointed: Generally speaking, an acquisition of a stock you own translates to a big payday. In my mind, the big surprise is that Synovus' shareholders aren't thrilled with the acquisition, given that they're picking up a competitor at a discounted price.