-
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.
February 21 -
Wells Fargo & Co. will expand its asset-based lending business into the United Kingdom by acquiring a lending arm of the Bank of Ireland.
December 19 -
Wells Fargo & Co. has signed a deal to acquire the investment boutique, EverKey Global Partners.
December 16 -
BB&T took a back seat to the more acquisitive Wells Fargo during the downturn. No more.
September 29
Wells Fargo (WFC) aims to branch into prime brokerage with an agreement to buy Merlin Securities, which serves hedge funds, family offices and other clients with up to $2 billion of assets, Wells announced Friday.
Terms of the deal for New York-based Merlin were not disclosed.
Merlin has 100 employees and offers custody, clearing, trading and other services to more than 500 hedge funds, according to its website.
It would be folded into Wells Fargo Securities, the successor to the investment bank Wells acquired in its takeover of Wachovia Corp. in 2008. Wells, based in San Francisco, has made bulking up that division's trading and hedge fund services a priority.
Wells has not made a bank acquisition in more than three years, but in the past year it has made
Merlin is "a logical extension our offering to the investment industry" and "provides new cross-sale opportunities," John Shrewsberry, head of Wells Fargo Securities, said in a press release Friday.
The deal is scheduled to close in the third quarter pending regulatory approval. Greenhill & Co. advised Merlin and Wells Fargo Securities advised its parent company.
