PNC sure knows how to make an entrance. Completing its acquisition of local business Mercantile Bankshares Corp. on March 2, Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. is trying to make itself a household.
As a result of the merger, PNC reported total assets of $123 billion, a new personal record. And besides the financial boom, PNC now has a nice bridge in a region it tried to penetrate.
The “acquisition of Mercantile Bankshares will fill the geographic void between its Pennsylvania market and Washington, D.C., branches,” Morningstar analyst Jaime Peters said in her company report. “PNC now faces the challenge of integrating Mercantile?s affiliate banks.”
Not that PNC doesn?t have a plan.
“We closed the deal and now our focus is really on insuring that the Mercantile customers have a good experience as we approach conversion in mid-September,” PNC spokesman Brian Goerke said in a previous interview with The Examiner. “What will happen is everything, the branch signage, the accounts will be converted to PNC Bank.”
In first-quarter results released this week by the Baltimore newcomer, PNC reported a net income of nearly $459 million. This represents nearly a $105 million increase over 2006?s first-quarter mark. And not only are profits being made, but shareholders are feeling the results. For the first quarter, shareholders earned a return of $1.46 per diluted share, a substantial jump from the $1.19 reported a year earlier.
“We grew net interest income and total revenue, we created positive operating leverage compared with both the first and fourth quarters of 2006,” PNC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James E. Rohr said in a statement.
PNC Financial is a member of The Examiner?s Top 10, a portfolio of 10 of the largest traded companies in the Baltimore area.
