Deal Timeline

Plotted by close date where disclosed, otherwise announcement. Select any marker to jump to the deal entry.

The Acquisition Playbook.

Three patterns run through TRUIST FINANCIAL's acquisitions — what it looks for, how it pays, and how it folds in what it buys.

01
Acquisition criteria
One transformational bank deal at a time.
As BB&T, Truist grew through large, deliberate whole-bank combinations rather than serial tuck-ins — the FDIC-assisted Colonial Bank purchase in 2009, the back-to-back Susquehanna ($2.5B) and National Penn ($1.8B) deals that built a Mid-Atlantic franchise in 2015-2016, and finally the ~$66B SunTrust merger of equals. Each was framed by CEO Kelly King as strategically compelling and financially attractive, with EPS accretion and strong IRR.
SunTrust BanksNational Penn BancsharesSusquehanna BancsharesColonial Bank (banking operations)Service Finance Company
02
Capital deployment
Geographic franchise-building, not product diversification.
The acquisitions repeatedly extended a deposit footprint into adjacent high-growth markets: Colonial vaulted BB&T to top-five deposit share in Alabama and Florida, while Susquehanna and National Penn together lifted it to a #4 ranking in Pennsylvania. Management explicitly described National Penn as complementing the legacy Susquehanna franchise, treating contiguous Mid-Atlantic expansion as a single multi-year build.
SunTrust BanksNational Penn BancsharesSusquehanna BancsharesColonial Bank (banking operations)Service Finance Company
03
Integration approach
Disciplined integration with quantified synergy targets.
Truist consistently attached hard cost-synergy goals and phased conversion plans to its deals. The SunTrust merger of equals carried a net cost-synergy target of at least $1.6 billion by 2022, and on the first post-close earnings call management laid out a 30% / 65% / 100% run-rate path across 2020-2022 alongside a deliberately cautious, client-protective systems-integration approach.
SunTrust BanksNational Penn BancsharesSusquehanna BancsharesColonial Bank (banking operations)Service Finance Company

The Full Deal Book

7 acquisitions — each with the deal value, financing structure, target revenue, and executive commentary where disclosed.

01 SunTrust Banks, Inc. · Atlanta, GA (headquarters); Southeast U.S. franchise $66B
Announced Feb 2019 Closed Dec 2019 All stock
retail bankingcommercial bankingwholesale bankingdigital banking platformexpanded fee-income businesses

All-stock merger of equals between BB&T Corporation and SunTrust Banks, Inc. creating Truist Financial Corporation, the sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets and deposits, with roughly $442 billion in assets, $301 billion in loans and $324 billion in deposits serving more than 10 million households. The combined company adopted a new name and brand and established a new corporate headquarters in Charlotte, NC. approximately $66 billion (all-stock merger of equals).

Why it was attractive
  • Enhanced scale
  • an expanded fee-income base
  • and overlap in high-growth Southeast markets
  • double-digit EPS accretion expected by 2021
This is a true merger of equals, combining the best of both companies to create the premier financial institution of the future.Kelly S. King — Chairman and CEO, BB&T Corporation
This is a historic moment for Truist - a financial services organization built to make a difference.Truist Financial Corporation (Dec. 9 — 2019 completion press release)
Post-close · earnings-call commentary

Truist Q4 2019 earnings call (Jan. 30, 2020): management described a careful and cautious approach to systems integration to minimize client disruption, reiterating confidence in the net $1.6 billion savings target with run-rate milestones across 2020-2022.

02 National Penn Bancshares, Inc. · Allentown, Pennsylvania $1.8B
Announced Aug 2015 Closed Apr 2016 Combination
community bankingdeposit franchisePennsylvania branch network

BB&T acquired National Penn Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: NPBC), headquartered in Allentown, PA, in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $1.8 billion. National Penn had about $9.6 billion in assets, $7.0 billion in deposits and 124 banking offices in Pennsylvania as of Sept. 30, 2015, lifting BB&T to a combined #4 ranking in Pennsylvania.

Why it was attractive
  • Combined #4 deposit ranking in Pennsylvania
  • EPS accretive with strong IRR
  • complements the Susquehanna acquisition completed months earlier
National Penn is a strategically compelling deal that complements the legacy Susquehanna franchise and presents enormous opportunities to leverage our proven community banking capabilities in these mid-Atlantic markets.Kelly S. King — Chairman and CEO, BB&T Corporation
03 Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. · Lititz, Pennsylvania (operations in PA, MD, NJ and WV) $2.5B
Announced Nov 2014 Closed Aug 2015 Combination
community bankingMid-Atlantic branch networkdeposit franchise

BB&T acquired Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUSQ), a Lititz, PA-based top-50 U.S. bank with $18.6 billion in assets, $13.6 billion in deposits and 245 banking offices across Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia, in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $2.5 billion. The deal significantly expanded BB&T's Mid-Atlantic footprint and improved its ranking to #5 in Maryland.

Why it was attractive
  • Attractive market extension
  • second-largest bank headquartered in Pennsylvania
  • combined #5 ranking in Susquehanna's markets
  • EPS accretive with strong IRR
04 Colonial Bank (banking operations) · Montgomery, Alabama (operations across Alabama, Florida and Georgia) Not disclosed
Announced Aug 2009 Closed Aug 2009 FDIC-assisted purchase and assumption with loss-sharing
branch network across AlabamaFlorida and Georgiadeposit franchise

In an FDIC-assisted transaction, BB&T acquired the banking operations of Colonial Bank of Montgomery, AL after Alabama regulators closed the bank and named the FDIC as receiver. BB&T acquired approximately $22 billion in net assets and assumed approximately $20 billion in deposits, with the FDIC and BB&T entering a loss-sharing agreement covering substantially all acquired loans and securities. It was BB&T's largest acquisition in its then-137-year history.

Why it was attractive
  • Moved BB&T to #4 deposit market share in Alabama and #5 in Florida
  • created the nation's eighth-largest financial holding company by deposits with minimal asset risk via FDIC loss-sharing
Today's announcement represents an exciting growth opportunity for BB&T. We're gaining solid market shares in great markets in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. And it comes with minimal asset risk to BB&T because of our loss sharing agreement with the FDIC.Kelly King — CEO, BB&T Corporation
05 Service Finance Company, LLC · United States (Boca Raton, Florida) $2B
Announced Aug 2021 Closed Aug 2021 Definitive agreement for Truist Bank

Truist's wholly owned subsidiary Truist Bank agreed to acquire Service Finance Company, a Boca Raton, Florida-based national provider of point-of-sale (POS) financing solutions for the home improvement industry. Service Finance uses proprietary technology to deliver payment solutions to more than 14,000 home improvement dealers and contractors, helping them offer prime and super-prime borrowers financing for a wide range of projects. The deal expanded Truist's POS lending business, which already included Sheffield Financial.

06 Long Game · United States (San Francisco, California) Not disclosed
Announced May 2022 Closed May 2022 Completed acquisition; Long Game team integrated into Truist's Innovation organization.

Truist acquired Long Game, a gamified personal-finance mobile app that uses prize-linked savings and casual gaming to encourage smart financial behaviors and drive account growth and client retention. Long Game's engineers, designers and leaders joined Truist's Innovation team, with co-founder and CEO Lindsay Holden leading a San Francisco-based group building new client-facing solutions. The app's architecture aligned with Truist's existing technology stack and complemented its Truist Momentum financial-wellness program.

07 BenefitMall · United States Not disclosed
Announced Aug 2022 Closed Aug 2022 Definitive agreement for Truist Insurance Holdings to acquire BenefitMall from Carlyle-managed funds; expected to close in Q3 2022 and be combined into CRC Group.

Truist Insurance Holdings, a Truist subsidiary and one of the largest U.S. insurance brokerages, agreed to acquire BenefitMall, the nation's largest benefits wholesale general agency, from funds managed by Carlyle. BenefitMall provides medical, dental, life, vision and long-term care benefits solutions through a network of roughly 20,000 retail brokers, serving more than 140,000 small and medium-sized businesses. The business was to be combined into Truist's CRC Group wholesale distribution arm.

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