Not Interesting to the Big 5So ten years of attempting to turn this around still hasn't worked. Even the new CEO couldn't get it fixed. Between management and the board it is clear they are tired of beating a dead horse.
Most assets are in Quebec, and overall size is small in relation to the amount of work needed on the regualtory side to get the purchase approved. 90% of the branches would be redundant, as are the staff. The existing IT infrastructure would need to be turned off, the online cpacity is rudimentary and not integratable and all legacy accounts and loans would need to be converted to the new owners system. To layoff and close that many locations would draw a ton of negative press and a lot of pressure from politicians.
Far too much work for what you get. On top of which, book value is quite a bit lower than claimed given the integration and wind up costs. Buying the assets and deposits would have a far lower value than an operating entitiy. If I still had any shares in this Bank I would have sold them yesterday shortly after the open.