BofA Agrees to Acquire LaSalle Bank

forbes

Bank of America Corp. confirmed Monday it will purchase LaSalle Bank Corp. from ABN Amro North America Holding Co. for $21 billion.

The deal initially was announced by ABN Amro (nyse: ABN - news - people ) when the Dutch bank agreed to sell itself to Barclays (nyse: BCS - news - people ) for nearly $91.2 billion. The net cost to Charlotte-based Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ) will be $16 billion after a return of $5 billion in excess capital.

Bank of America said it expects the deal to immediately enhance its earnings per share and added that it expects around $800 million in after-tax cost savings. Restructuring costs also are expected to be around $800 million, the bank said.

LaSalle is a top-20 U.S. bank holding company, with $113 billion total assets.

The combination of LaSalle and Bank of America creates a leading banking franchise in metropolitan Chicago, the No. 3 banking market in the United States, and in Michigan.

In the last four years, Bank of America has grown its retail presence in Chicago from a single financial center to 56 locations. Once combined with LaSalle's 141 Chicago area offices, Bank of America will have more than 14 percent of the deposit market share in metropolitan Chicago.

The purchase will significantly deepen Bank of America's Chicago presence and add LaSalle's 17,000 commercial banking clients, 1.4 million retail customers, 411 banking centers and 1,500 ATMs in the Chicago area, Michigan and Indiana.

It also will mark Bank of America's retail branch entry in Michigan, where it will have 264 offices and be the largest bank with a 23 percent deposit market share.

Bank of America also will acquire LaSalle's six offices in Indiana.