State Street and Brown Brothers Harriman walk away from $3.5 billion deal for BBH Investor Services unit

State Street Corp.
STT,
+0.56%
said Wednesday it reached an agreement with Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH) to terminate its acquisition of BBH’s Investors Services unit because of regulatory delays and additional operational risk posed by the $3.5 billion deal as initially announced on Sept. 21, 2021. State Street also cited a challenging financial services M&A environment. State Street CEO Ron O’Hanley said, “the decision not to proceed with this transaction was not taken lightly and is in no way a reflection of the quality of the BBH franchise.” The sale and purchase agreement for the BBH unit does not provide for a contractual penalty by either State Street or BBH for termination. Jefferies analyst Ken Usdin said in a September note that forward-looking statements in State Street’s press release indicate that the likeliness of State Street closing its acquisition of BBH Investor Services “is lower due to numerous complications, but the ongoing lack of finality keeps the issue open-ended.” Usdin said in September he expected the deal to re-price. Shares of State Street rose 2% in premarket trades.