J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., still in the thick of integrating Bank One Corp., said Friday that it had made a deal to expand its business with importers and exporters.
The New York banking company announced that it had agreed to pay $129 million in stock for Vastera, a trade management firm based in Dulles, Va.. Vastera helps more than 400 companies around the world document imports and exports, procure correct licensing and classifications, ensure compliance, manage inventory, and track payments.
JPMorgan Chase already has a sizable trade finance operation. It is the largest issuer of letters of credit, with about $62 billion in net outstandings, and handles transaction processing and other technology support through its treasury services division.
In a telephone interview Friday, Paul Simpson, the global trade services business executive for JPMorgan Treasury Services, said Vastera would deepen its contacts with current clients and bring new ones in the middle market and abroad, particularly in Europe.
The purchase would also advance the goal of getting more of customers’ business. Treasury Services could cross-sell a vast array of products, from corporate finance to private banking for executives of the client companies.
The Vastera agreement was the third substantial deal the company had announced since paying $58 billion for Bank One of Chicago in July. Last fall it took a majority stake in Highbridge Capital, a $7 billion New York hedge fund, fulfilling an ambition to expand in alternative investments; and announced a joint venture with London’s Cazenove Group, boosting its M&A practice in Europe.
JPMorgan Chase executives, however, have insisted that another transformational deal is not on the immediate horizon.
Asked last week on CNBC whether he would consider buying the big U.K. bank Barclays PLC, chairman and chief executive William B. Harrison Jr., said: “We’re not interested in doing any kind of merger for … two, three years. You can’t do too many mergers too quickly and expect to execute them well.”
