Wells Fargo & Co. said Thursday that it had signed a definitive agreement to sell one of its full-service brokerage units.
The San Francisco banking company is to sell FAS Holdings Inc. and its First Allied Securities Inc. unit to Advanced Equities Financial Corp. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The sale is expected to close this quarter.
Mike Beares, a vice president of corporate communications at Wells Fargo, said that the parent company had decided to sell First Allied because it did not offer good enough opportunities to cross-sell products and services.
First Allied is a full-service brokerage and investment services firm for retail clients working with independent financial consultants and broker-dealers. It has 92 team members and 465 contracted representatives. First Allied is to be operated as a separate broker-dealer within Advanced Equities' financial services group.
Advanced Equities said the purchase would give its financial services group a strong presence in the independent brokerage community. It said it believes that First Allied would make it one of the 20 largest independent brokerage firms in the United States.
