Actually, 2 years is very doable even for a merger of this size. We’ve seen it done before. In fact, it was harder in the past because many of the larger mergers included operations where certain states had separate charters from the primary bank.
The actual hard part will be selling branches in markets where there is too much overlap when it may be possible for other banks to just buy failing banks at a much lower price. I expect there to be a lot of de novo banks founded to take good branches in just this scenario if there are not local/regional banks capable of buying the branches.
Two years maybe but it’s already Oct.’08 and the deal won’t close until the end of the year. End of 2011 seems more reasonable to me. And there’s very little overlap in the branch locations...makes it an attractive deal.
But here’s a thought. The deal can’t go through until the shareholders approve it. What happens if a bailout package is approved and the shareholders reject the deal? There’s no date even set for the vote yet. Could it be Steel is hedging his bets waiting to see what Congress does? Buying some time so to speak?