BB&T-Colonial Deal Illustrates It's the Big Bank Chiefs Who Win Again
Daniel M. Harrison submits:
Colonial BancGroup’s (CNB) quick fire-sale to regional North Carolina bank BB&T (BBT) offers an indication that the U.S. economy may be slowly recovering. But that’s small consolation to the large number of speculators who piled into the lender’s worthless penny shares in recent weeks, hoping for a non-bankruptcy ending to the tale.
When BB&T announced Friday that it had brokered a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to buy $22 billion of Colonial BancGroup’s assets, including deposits and branches, investors cheered the news by heavily buying the former’s shares. Friday, BB&T ended up roughly 10 percent on the day, helping the firm to issue a $750 million stock offering Monday to pay for the deal.
