Whitney Holding To Be Acquired By Hancock Holding Company

Wunderlich Securities has published a research report on White Holding Corporation WTNY and has suspended its ratings and price target after the company announced that it would be acquired by Hancock Holding Company HBHC. In the report, Wunderlich writes "On December 22, 2010, HBHC announced a definitive agreement to acquire WTNY in an all-stock transaction, where WTNY shareholders will receive 0.418 shares of HBHC. Based on HBHC's December 21, 2010 closing price of $37.04, this represented a 42% premium to WTNY's to closing price of $10.87 at announcement. Subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011. At this time, we are suspending our rating, price target and EPS estimates. Our prior rating was Hold and our last published price target on WTNY shares was $10. Our last published estimates were a loss of $1.17 per share for 2010 and EPS of $0.35 for 2011." Whitney Holding Corporation closed yesterday at $14.00.