Treasury to Auction 1.2 Million Warrants in M&T Bank

The Treasury Department is scheduled on Tuesday to auction warrants to purchase 1.2 million shares of common stock in M&T Bank (MTB).

Bids will start at $23.50 per warrant, the Treasury said in a press release Monday. The modified Dutch auction is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. and finish at 6:30 p.m.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. is the book-running manager for the secondary public offering.

The Treasury Department in August sold $381.5 million of preferred shares it held in M&T, the last of its holdings in the Buffalo, N.Y., company from the Troubled Asset Relief Program except for warrants for 1.7 million common shares.

M&T repaid $370 million of its Tarp aid last year.

M&T took $600 million in aid in 2008, and inherited another $151.5 million in its 2009 acquisition of Provident Bankshares in Baltimore. Wilmington Trust of Wilmington, Del., had $330 million in outstanding Tarp aid that M&T retired upon acquiring that company last year.

It has been a busy year for M&T, which agreed in August to buy Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK) in Paramus, N.J., for $3.7 billion.