Wells Fargo to Buy Energy-Lending Unit from BNP Paribas

In what would be its latest asset purchase from a European bank, Wells Fargo & Co. announced after markets closed Tuesday that it is acquiring BNP Paribas' North American energy-lending business in all-cash deal.

Wells did not disclose its purchase price for the unit, which has 175 customer relationships and $9.5 billon of loan commitments.

Though Wells has not made a bank acquisition in more than three years, it has been adding assets through a series of bite-sized deals with European banks that have been deleveraging in order to bolster capital levels. It recently announced plans to acquire an asset-based lending unit from the Bank of Ireland and last year it bought Bank of Ireland's currency-exchange business in Florida and acquired some U.S. commercial loans from the Irish Bank Resolution Corp., a holding company the Irish government created when it nationalized two ailing banks.

Its deal for the BNP Paribas unit is expected to close later this year.