Hilltop Holdings (NYSE:HTH)

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTH), a Dallas-based holding company, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Dallas-based PlainsCapital Corporation, the financial services holding company for PlainsCapital Bank, PrimeLending, and FirstSouthwest. PlainsCapital Corporation is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilltop. Based on Hilltop’s closing market price of $14.29 as of November 30, 2012, the total value of the consideration for the acquisition was approximately $700 million.

The deal was recently ranked by SNL Financial as one of the top 10 biggest bank and thrift deals since Jan. 1, 2010.

“This transaction is a significant accomplishment for Hilltop and PlainsCapital,” said Gerald J. Ford, chairman of Hilltop. “This gives Hilltop the opportunity to own a financial services company that has a proven track record of success, strength and stability. In return, PlainsCapital has access to additional capital for future growth.”

PlainsCapital Corporation Chairman and CEO Alan B. White will continue to lead the PlainsCapital family of companies. He has also been named vice chairman of Hilltop and chairman of the executive committee for Hilltop. Jeremy B. Ford will continue to serve as president and CEO of Hilltop.

Stephens Inc. served as financial advisor to Hilltop, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor. JPMorgan Securities LLC served as financial advisor to PlainsCapital Corporation, and Sullivan & Cromwell and Haynes & Boone served as legal advisors.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTH), a Dallas-based holding company, and Dallas-based PlainsCapital Corporation, the financial services holding company for PlainsCapital Bank, PrimeLending, and FirstSouthwest, today jointly announced the receipt of regulatory approval from federal regulators to proceed with Hilltop’s acquisition of PlainsCapital Corporation. Hilltop also received approval to become a financial holding company upon consummation of the transaction.

The companies expect the acquisition to close on or about Nov. 30, 2012. Once completed, PlainsCapital Corporation will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilltop.

Stephens Inc. served as financial advisor to Hilltop, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor. JPMorgan Securities LLC served as financial advisor to PlainsCapital Corporation, and Sullivan & Cromwell and Haynes & Boone served as legal advisors.

Hilltop Holdings - A Narrow Window of Arbitrage Opportunity Plain to See

At times we inform our GeoInvesting subscribers about investment ideas that we think institutions have yet to fully identify, but may soon quickly allocate significant capital into. In such cases we savor the opportunity to buy a stock before institutional players drive its share price to much higher levels. We believe an investment in Hilltop Holdings (NYSE:HTH) presents such an opportunity.

The GeoTeam's most recent report discusses this opportunity...

Please see entire article

To be among the first to receive alerts like this, please subscribe to our premium service!

Hilltop Holdings (NYSE:HTH) update by Stern Agee confirms our thoughts that there is upside to our evaluation scenarios.   Please see our report here. From Stern Agee…

The early look at PlainsCapital call report data suggests further momentum from the mortgage origination platform, strong C&I loan growth, and increased core profitability in 3Q12. While the acquisition has not yet closed, we expect the contribution of PlainsCapital 3Q12 earnings should result in HTH's pro-forma TBVPS exceeding our initial modeling upon consummation of the merger (which should occur in the next quarter).

Thoughts on the Shares. We continue to view HTH as a unique and undervalued story given the combination of management's track record for maximizing shareholder value and PlainsCapital's diverse business mix well positioned for further growth. While HTH and PlainsCapital Corp. (PCC) have yet to report 3Q12 earnings on a GAAP basis, the early look at PCC's subsidiary bank (97% of total holding company assets) call report data indicates incrementally higher mortgage banking revenues, solid loan growth (ex. the HFS portfolio) and improved profitability. While we will wait for 10-Qs to be filed, the important points are our previous pro-forma TBVPS(Tangible Book Value Per Share) modeling of $7.90(GeoTeam calculated TBVPS was $8.23) ( for year-end will likely prove ~$0.30 conservative and our EPS estimates could likewise prove conservative depending on mortgage banking in FY13.