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PHILADELPHIA-Harrisburg-based Waypoint Financial shareholders' election results seal Waypoint's acquisition by locally based Sovereign Bancorp under a merger agreement originally expected to take place in last year's final quarter. As a result of the election, Sovereign will issue approximately 29.8 million shares of common stock and pay $945.1 million for all of Waypoint's outstanding shares of common stock. This is approximately $35 million less than the anticipated $980-million value of the transaction.

Waypoint's 66 banking offices throughout south-central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland assume the Sovereign name and identity. "Signage is already being changed at those locations," Sovereign's director of communications, tells GlobeSt.com. Furthermore, Waypoint adds approximately $3.8 billion in assets to Sovereign, making Sovereign a $58-billion financial institution, the 18th largest in the US.

This merger follows Sovereign's acquisition of First Essex and Seacoast banks, which, together, added 87 branches and $6.7 billion in assets during 2004. Despite its rapid expansion, Jay S. Sidhu, chairman and CEO, says Sovereign's "decentralized model and regional market structure positions us as local community banks. We'll out-local the locals and out-national the nationals," he said during a conference call.

Sovereign trades under SOV on the NYSE. Shares began trading at $22.52 a share on Friday, Jan. 28, the day of this announcement. The 52-week high is $23.59 a share, which occurred on Feb. 11, 2004, and the 52-week low, $19.31 a share, occurred on April 15, 2004.

Instant Insights /

Sovereign Completes $945M Waypoint Acquisition

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