Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Franklin Financial's Restructuring Work Pays Off With A Good Buyout Offer

In doing some prep work ahead of earnings, I’d flagged Franklin Financial Network (FSB) as a name to cover given what I thought would be an increasing likelihood of a buyout as management cleaned up and repositioned the balance sheet. Turns out that was the right assumption, as Franklin Financial announced in conjunction with fourth quarter earnings that it had accepted a buyout offer from FB Financial (FBK), a fellow Tennessee-based bank company.

I think Franklin Financial shareholders are getting a pretty good deal here. Even though FB Financial shares have sold off a bit, the approximately $38/share effective deal price as of this writing is about 1.4x tangible book value – a small premium to the highest ROTCE Franklin has posted in recent years and a hefty premium to the current financial performance. For those investors who don’t want to sell out, FB Financial isn’t a bad bank, though I don’t see the shares trading at a significant discount today unless management can really work some synergy magic with Franklin.

Read more here:
Franklin Financial's Restructuring Work Pays Off With A Good Buyout Offer

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