PNC Will Not Need to Sell Stock to Fund RBC Deal, Fed Says

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. will not need to issue additional shares of common stock to complete its $3.45 billion acquisition of RBC Bank USA.

The $261 billion-asset company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday that the Federal Reserve Board "had no objections" with its plans for funding the deal and, as such, will not have to sell additional shares at the time the sale closes or repurchase any of its common shares before then. Since the deal was first announced in June, James Rohr, PNC's chairman and chief executive, has said that PNC would use a combination of retained earnings, preferred shares and debt to fund the deal.

The company also reiterated in the SEC filing that the deal, expected to close in the first quarter, would be immediately accretive to earnings.

The deal for RBC, a unit of the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, would give Pittsburgh-based PNC more than 400 branches in six Southeastern states. The company also has a deal pending to acquire 27 Atlanta-area branches from Flagstar Bank of Troy, Mich. When the two deals are completed, PNC would have the No. 7 deposit share in the Atlanta market.

PNC in June completed the purchase of 19 branches in the Tampa and St. Petersburg metropolitan area and $350 million of deposits from BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc.