TORONTO (Standard&Poor's) May 17, 2010--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings on The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD; AA-/Stable/A-1+) are unaffected by the company's announcement to acquire The South Financial Group, in the Carolinas and Florida. We expect the transaction to close in TD's third-quarter 2010 (ended July 31) and to have a moderate impact of 40-50 basis points on Tier 1 Capital. This takes into account an additional C$250 million worth of common shares that the bank intends to issue in connection with the transaction. On Jan. 31, 2010, its regulatory Tier 1 Capital was 11.5%. We believe that this relatively small acquisition (about C$12.4 billion in assets) is consistent with TD's strategy in the U.S.
