PNC Bank Announces Plan to Buy National City Bank for $5.2B

November 1, 2008

Interstate Lane Fast Lane - The Lane Report - November 2008
: PNC Bank Announces Plan to Buy National City Bank for $5.2B

PNC Financial Services Group has announced plans to acquire Cleveland-based National City Corp. in a deal valued at $5.2 billion. The acquisition of National City will increase Pittsburg-based PNC’s core deposit base to $180 billion, making it the fifth-largest U.S. bank by deposits. The merged entity will have its headquarters in Pittsburgh.

Upon closing the transaction, National City President and CEO Peter Raskind will be appointed a PNC vice chairman and one National City director will join the board of the combined company.

In addition to ranking fifth nationally in deposits, the combination with National City is expected to place PNC fourth among U.S. banks in number of branches. It will give PNC the No. 1 deposit share position in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky and will rank the company No. 2 in Indiana and Maryland.

: Italian Gear Maker Selects Muncie for U.S. Operations Center

Italian gear maker Brevini has announced plans to locate its United States headquarters and its first North American gear design and manufacturing center in Muncie, Ind., creating more than 450 jobs by 2011.

The facility will serve as a hub for developing and manufacturing wind turbine planetary gear boxes used in wind farms across the country. The gear boxes, which transform kinetic wind energy into mechanical energy for electricity generation, are a critical component in furthering wind power generation in the United States, said Renato Brevini, founder and chief executive officer of Brevini.

Brevini will locate its North American headquarters and design center in an existing 60,000-s.f. facility and plans to construct an additional 150,000 s.f. of manufacturing space at the site in 2010 to manufacture planetary gear boxes for wind turbine energy generation and other low-speed, high-torque applications.

Brevini currently designs and manufactures its planetary gear boxes in Germany, Italy and China. The company will begin hiring engineers, accountants, customer service staff and assembly technicians in 2009 following the relocation of its existing U.S. headquarters from suburban Chicago.

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