Bank of America completes LaSalle acquisition

Northwestern Financial Review, Nov 1-Nov 14, 2007

Bank of America completed its $21 billion purchase of LaSalle Bank Corp. from ABN AMRO Holding N.V., on Oct. 1, days after BofA announced it will cut 4,000 jobs in Illinois and Michigan in connection with the deal.

Acquiring LaSalle makes Charlotte-based BofA a dominant banking company in the Chicago area and Michigan's largest bank with BofA's retail entry into the state.

Previously, BofA had less than 2 percent of the metro Chicago market, according to the FDIC. Over the last four years, BofA has added 56 branches in Chicago. Buying LaSalle gives BofA 411 branches, 17,000 commercial banking clients, 1.4 million retail customers and 1,500 ATMs in Chicago, Michigan and Indiana.

Adding LaSalle will give BofA about $1.7 trillion in assets, trailing only Citigroup Inc., and more than 6,100 U.S. branches, nearly twice as many as any other bank.

BofA said on Sept. 26 that it plans to layoff about 2,500 workers in Illinois and 1,500 in Michigan over the next two years following its purchase of LaSalle. The job cuts are intended to help BofA save about $800 million by 2009. After the cuts, BofA expects to employ about 8,000 people in Illinois and 2,500 in Michigan.

LaSalle Bank Chairman Norman Bobins will become chairman emeritus of LaSalle and assist in the merger of the two companies before retiring at the end of the year. LaSalle Chief Executive Robert Moore will serve as a transition executive before leaving the company at the end of the year to pursue other opportunities.

BofA also announced it will move its commercial real estate banking headquarters to Chicago from Atlanta.

In addition, the Detroit Free Press reported on Oct. 2 that Kenneth Lewis, chairman and CEO of BofA, would meet with Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick about possibly moving BofA's regional headquarters from Troy, Mich.. to downtown Detroit.

BofA won approval on Sept. 14 from the Federal Reserve to buy LaSalle from ABN AMRO. The Dutch bank itself is an acquisition target with separate purchase bids from Barclay's and a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland. A decision on the sale of ABN AMRO was expected sometime in October.