Now that it has moved its headquarters to Texas, Comerica Inc. might start buying banks there soon.
The $59 billion-asset company has been a builder, not a buyer, in recent years, but Elizabeth Acton, its chief financial officer, said this week that it is seeing more acquisition opportunities of late, and that its new status as a Texas company could give it a "competitive advantage" over other potential buyers there.
"Texas banks like to be owned by another Texas bank," Ms. Acton said.
She gave no indication what Comerica's criteria would be in Texas, and a spokesman said it would not comment further on its acquisition strategy.
Industry watchers around Texas said they would expect Comerica to look at large deals for business-focused banking companies in the state's major metropolitan markets. But they also stressed that finding willing sellers that meet Comerica's specifications could be a challenge.
Texas has been one of the nation's fastest-growing states in recent years and, as a result, has been a hotbed of merger and acquisition activity. Last year 30 deals were announced for banks there, more than in any other state, and even though the pace has slowed some this year, banks there remain attractive targets for both in-state and out-of-state buyers, industry observers say.
Comerica entered Texas in the 1980s and has about 70 branches there, mostly clustered around Dallas and Houston. The company, which moved its headquarters from Detroit to Dallas last month, has not made a banking purchase since 2001, when it acquired the $7.4 billion-asset Imperial Bancorp in Los Angeles.
However, Comerica has never stopped looking for deals; it just has not found the right match at the right price, Ms. Acton said Wednesday in a presentation at the Banc of America Securities annual investor conference in San Francisco.
Dan Bass, a director in Houston for Carson Medlin Co. of Raleigh, said Comerica is getting word out to investment bankers that it is in the market to buy banks. In March, when it announced it was moving its headquarters, Mr. Bass said, he received a call from the company asking him to scout around for possible deals in Houston.
"That is exactly what I would do if I was in their shoes," he said. "I'd be calling and saying, 'If we hear about a Texas bank that sold, we better have been called.' "
But Clark Locke, an investment banker in Austin, said that Comerica has never been an aggressive dealmaker, and that until it proves otherwise, he does not see it as a serious buyer.
"Truthfully, I think you will see them branch a little and be opportunistic on the deal front," said Mr. Locke, who heads investment banking in Texas for Hovde Financial Inc. "Until you see them pull the trigger on a deal, they fall into a category of 'looking.' "
Other investment bankers said Comerica might find the pickings to be slim.
Recent consolidation has left Texas with only about a dozen commercial banks with more than $2 billion of assets, so "there is a diminishing inventory of large banks in Texas that would fit their profile," said Curtis Carpenter, the managing director at Sheshunoff & Co. Investment Banking in Austin.
The $4.4 billion-asset Sterling Bancshares Inc. in Houston, the $3.9 billion-asset Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. in Dallas, and the $2.2 billion-asset Southwest Bancorp Inc. in Stillwater, Okla., which has been growing in the Dallas market, may fit Comerica's requirements, Mr. Carpenter said.
Stephen Skaggs, the president at Bank Advisory Group Inc. in Austin, agreed that Comerica probably would look at the large companies first. However, he also said they have been propositioned at one time or another and have decided to remain independent.
Comerica "should start at the top and work their way down until they find someone who is interested," he said.
