MEMPHIS, Tenn., Jan. 10, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN) today announced that its capital markets division, FTN Financial, completed its acquisition of the assets and operations of the fixed income business of Spear, Leeds & Kellogg (SLK), a division of Goldman Sachs & Co., on Friday, Jan. 7, 2005.
The acquisition, announced on Oct. 28, 2004, is expected to be accretive to First Horizon's earnings per share during the first full calendar year. FTN Financial now has approximately 1,000 employees in 15 states and more than 5,000 total customers.
Jim Hughes, president and CEO of FTN Financial, said, "The completion of the acquisition of SLK's fixed income business greatly enhances our powerful strategic platform and increases our size and scale, solidifying FTN Financial's position among the industry leaders. It is already clear that FTN Financial's and SLK's similar cultures and approach to business will make the integration smooth, allowing us to offer seamless service to all of our customers."
The combination of FTN Financial's outstanding distribution network, well-recognized fixed income expertise and research with SLK's sales and trading depth will create a company with one of the fixed income industry's largest sales forces, a broader range of product offerings, access to state-of-the-art trading systems, and leading fixed income research. The combination will also better balance FTN Financial's existing mix between depository and non-depository institutions and strengthen its overall position in the corporate fixed income marketplace.
About FTN Financial
FTN Financial is a full-service provider of financial services for the investment and banking community. FTN Financial includes these five business lines: Capital Markets, Equity Research, Investment Banking, Correspondent Services, and Strategic Alliances. With offices nationwide, FTN Financial is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn. More information can be found at www.FTNFinancial.com.
About First Horizon National Corporation
The 12,000 employees of First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN) provide financial services to individual and business customers through hundreds of offices located in more than 40 states. The corporation's three major brands -- FTN Financial, First Horizon and First Tennessee -- provide customers with a broad range of products and services including:
-- Capital markets, with one of the nation's top underwriters of
U.S. government agency securities
-- Mortgage banking, with one of the nation's top 15 mortgage
originators and servicers, which earned a top-10 ranking in
customer satisfaction from J.D. Power and Associates
-- Retail/commercial banking, with the largest market share in
Tennessee and one of the highest customer retention rates of any
bank in the country
FHN companies have been recognized as some of the nation's best employers by AARP, Working Mother, Business Week and Fortune magazines. FHN also was named one of the nation's 100 best corporate citizens by Business Ethics magazine. More information can be found at www.FirstHorizon.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving significant risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking information. Those factors include general economic and financial market conditions, including expectations of and actual timing and amount of interest rate movements, competition, investor responses to these conditions, ability to execute business plans, geo-political developments, items already mentioned in this press release, and other factors described in our recent filings with the SEC. FHN disclaims any obligation to update any such factors or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements included herein to reflect future events or developments.