WSFS Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: WSFS) (“WSFS”) and Beneficial
Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNCL) (“Beneficial”), jointly announced a
retail banking office optimization plan that aligns with the
previously reported intent to merge Beneficial Bank into WSFS
Bank. The plan includes the consolidation of 25% of the
combined Beneficial and WSFS retail banking offices due to an
overall decline in branch transactional activity, Customers’ rapid
adoption and usage of digital services, geographic overlap and
optimization opportunities. To continue delivering on its
mission of “We Stand For Service” amidst evolving Customer
expectations, WSFS also committed to reinvest an incremental $32
million of the estimated cost savings from the retail office
optimization plan into a five-year transformational investment in
technology and delivery systems to create a top-tier physical and
digital servicing platform that will significantly enhance Customer
experiences across all business lines.
Teams from both institutions conducted an
extensive analysis of the combined franchise to study market
overlap, transaction trends, space considerations, cost of
ownership, business opportunities, the brand experience, visibility
from high-traffic roadways, and the accessibility of each
location. WSFS leveraged this due diligence to determine that
it will consolidate 14 Beneficial and 11 WSFS retail banking
offices of the combined network. WSFS also plans to sell five
additional retail banking offices located on the outer edges
of the combined core footprint. Most closures will occur at the
conversion of Beneficial Bank into WSFS Bank, which is expected to
occur in August 2019.
Eighty percent (80%) of the consolidating retail
offices are less than three miles from remaining locations,
including nearly a third that are less than a mile away. WSFS
is offering jobs to all Beneficial and WSFS team members of the
consolidating banking offices within the Retail Division of WSFS
Bank. WSFS will also raise the minimum wage across the
combined organization to WSFS’ current minimum of $15 an hour.
The planned combination and ongoing delivery
transformation will make WSFS the largest, premier,
longest-standing, locally-headquartered community bank for the
Greater Delaware Valley with approximately $13 billion in assets
and growing.
“We have worked quickly, but diligently, on our
plan to combine our two institutions, which included identifying
the retail space that will best help us deliver top-tier quality
services and solutions for Customers across the Delaware Valley,”
said Rodger Levenson, WSFS’ Executive Vice President and Chief
Operating Officer, who will become President and Chief Executive
Officer on January 1, 2019. “This retail banking office
optimization initiative and our planned technology reinvestment,
combined with a larger balance sheet and an intimate knowledge of
the market, affirms our unique position to fill a long-standing gap
between big banks and smaller community banks in the
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington MSA.”
WSFS has posted on its website
(wsfsbank.com/beneficial) the 25 retail banking offices that are
slated to consolidate as part of the retail banking office
optimization plan. WSFS will begin communicating these
consolidations and other merger-related information to Beneficial
and WSFS Customers in the first quarter of 2019 after the
combination receives regulatory approval and the deal closes.
About WSFS Financial
CorporationWSFS Financial Corporation is a multi-billion
dollar financial services company. Its primary subsidiary, WSFS
Bank, is the longest-standing and largest locally-managed bank and
trust company headquartered in Delaware and the Delaware Valley. As
of September 30, 2018, WSFS Financial Corporation had $7.2 billion
in assets on its balance sheet and $19.7 billion in assets under
management and administration. WSFS operates from 77 offices
located in Delaware (46), Pennsylvania (29), Virginia (1) and
Nevada (1) and provides comprehensive financial services including
commercial banking, retail banking, cash management and trust and
wealth management. Other subsidiaries or divisions include
Christiana Trust, Christiana Trust of DE, WSFS Wealth Investments,
WSFS Wealth Client Management, Cypress Capital Management, LLC,
West Capital Management, Powdermill Financial Solutions, Cash
Connect®, WSFS Mortgage and Arrow Land Transfer. Serving the
Delaware Valley since 1832, WSFS Bank is one of the ten oldest
banks in the United States continuously operating under the same
name. For more information, please visit wsfsbank.com.
About Beneficial Bancorp,
Inc.Beneficial is a community-based, diversified financial
services company providing consumer and commercial banking
services. Its principal subsidiary, Beneficial Bank, has served
individuals and businesses in the Delaware Valley area since 1853.
The Bank is the oldest and largest bank headquartered in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with 61 offices in the greater
Philadelphia and South New Jersey regions. Equipment leasing
services are offered through Beneficial Equipment Leasing
Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank, and
Neumann Finance Company, which is a majority owned subsidiary of
the Bank. For more information about the Bank and Beneficial,
please visit www.thebeneficial.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains estimates,
predictions, opinions, projections and other “forward-looking
statements” as that phrase is defined in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include,
without limitation, statements relating to the impact WSFS expects
its proposed acquisition of Beneficial to have on the combined
entity’s operations, financial condition, and financial results,
and WSFS’s expectations about its ability to successfully integrate
the combined businesses and the amount of cost savings and overall
operational efficiencies WSFS expects to realize as a result of the
proposed acquisition. The forward-looking statements also
include predications or expectations of future business or
financial performance as well as goals and objectives for future
operations, financial and business trends, business prospects, and
management’s outlook or expectations for earnings, revenues,
expenses, capital levels, liquidity levels, asset quality or other
future financial or business performance, strategies or
expectations. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,”
“plan,” “estimate,” “target,” “project” and similar expressions,
among others, generally identify forward-looking statements. Such
forward-looking statements are based on various assumptions (many
of which are beyond the control of WSFS and Beneficial) and are
subject to risks and uncertainties (which change over time) and
other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially
from those currently anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties
include, but are not limited to, the possibility that the proposed
acquisition does not close when expected or at all because required
regulatory or other approvals and other conditions to closing are
not received or satisfied on a timely basis or at all, the failure
to close for any other reason, changes in WSFS’s share price before
closing, that the businesses of WSFS and Beneficial will not be
integrated successfully, that the cost savings and any synergies
from the proposed acquisition may not be fully realized or may take
longer to realize than expected, disruption from the proposed
acquisition making it more difficult to maintain relationships with
employees, customers or other parties with whom WSFS or Beneficial
have business relationships, diversion of management time on
merger-related issues, risks relating to the potential dilutive
effect of shares of WSFS common stock to be issued in the
transaction, the reaction to the transaction of the companies’
customers, employees and counterparties and other factors, many of
which are beyond the control of WSFS and Beneficial. We refer
you to the “Risk Factors” section of the joint proxy
statement/prospectus and to the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations” sections of WSFS’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2017, the Annual Report on Form 10-K filed
by Beneficial for the year ended December 31, 2017 and any updates
to those risk factors set forth in WSFS’s and Beneficial’s
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and
other filings, which have been filed by WSFS and Beneficial with
the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and are
available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. All
forward-looking statements, expressed or implied, included in this
Current Report on Form 8-K are expressly qualified in their
entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to
herein. The actual results or developments anticipated may not be
realized or, even if substantially realized, they may not have the
expected consequences to or effects on WSFS, Beneficial or their
respective businesses or operations. We caution readers not to
place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which
speak only as of the date on which they are made. Neither WSFS nor
Beneficial undertakes any obligation, and specifically declines any
obligation, to revise or update any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future developments or
otherwise.
Investor Relations Contact:
Dominic C. Canuso (302) 571-6833
dcanuso@wsfsbank.comMedia Contact: Jimmy A.
Hernandez (302) 571-5254
jhernandez@wsfsbank.com
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