BMO Financial Group to Acquire Marshall & Ilsley

BMO Financial Group BMO and Marshall & Ilsley Corporation MI today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which BMO will acquire all outstanding shares of common stock of M&I in a stock-for-stock transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, each outstanding share of M&I will be exchanged for 0.1257 shares of Bank of Montreal upon closing. Based on the closing share price of Bank of Montreal on the TSX of C$62.05 on December 16, 2010, the transaction values each share of M&I at US$ 7.75, or an aggregate amount of approximately US$4.1 billion in Bank of Montreal common shares. The closing share price of M&I on NYSE on December 16 was US$5.79.