In an effort to become more of a money-center bank, Fleet Financial Group Inc. is expanding its corporate wholesale and capital markets-related operations.
Senior executives with the Boston-based bank said they plan to develop private placements, mergers and advisory services, syndications and structured finance as part of a strategic move announced earlier this week to set up a corporate finance group.
In addition, the bank will be looking to develop business with larger companies. Fleet has until now focused mainly on companies with up to $250 million in annual sales.
"What we're doing is following a trend within the commercial banking industry to provide customers with a broader range of products," said Robert Higgins, a Fleet vice chairman.
Last year, Fleet bought Shawmut National Corp., and is scheduled to merge with National Westminister Bancorp by June. This will create a $90 billion-asset institution with a wider range of customers than Fleet traditionally has had.
Fleet now has $84 billion in assets and ranks as the 10th-largest U.S. bank.
Mr. Higgins noted that both Shawmut and Natwest have worked with large corporations, which require a more sophisticated array of corporate finance products.
"There was a need to create a comprehensive menu of products and services that was not urgent when Fleet was a $30 billion or $40 billion company but has become critical as a $90 billion institution," Mr. Higgins said.
The new unit has a staff of 25 and will be adding five more corporate finance specialists. As part of the reorganization, Fleet announced earlier this week that it has hired three corporate finance executives away from Citicorp.
The three, due to join Fleet March 1, include Tim Conway, who will head up the new unit, Paul Trefry, who will become a managing director, and Scott Pirier, who will be a vice president.
Prior to joining Fleet, Mr. Conway was managing director for sponsor finance at Citicorp, where he managed Citibank's relationships with leveraged-buyout fims and the bank's private-placement group.
In an interview Thursday, Mr. Conway said Fleet planned to focus "primarily on the Northeast region" but would also be looking to expand nationwide.
He added that the bank expected little difficulty when it folds Natwest's existing corporate finance activities into the new unit.
Fleet has 35,000 corporate customers and a $25 billion commercial loan portfolio. Acquistion of Natwest will add another $10 billion in loans.
Mr. Higgins said Fleet would also like to expand operations at its New York-based, Section 20 investment banking unit, Fleet Securities Inc.
The unit has focused mainly on government securities, but it's now seeking to underwrite and distribute corporate debt and equity.
