Reuters: Mergers News: UPDATE 1-Wells Fargo buying prime brokerage firm Merlin

Reuters: Mergers News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

UPDATE 1-Wells Fargo buying prime brokerage firm Merlin Apr 27th 2012, 14:33 Fri Apr 27, 2012 10:33am EDT April 27 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co is buying a prime brokerage firm in its first foray into the business of providing trading, reporting and other services for hedge funds. The acquisition of Merlin Securities LLC gives the No. 4 U.S. bank a platform for growing in the prime brokerage business and for selling other products and services to hedge funds, said Chris Bartlett, Wells Fargo's head of equity sales and trading. "It's a way for us to wade into the business and grow over time," Bartlett said in an interview. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo did not disclose terms of the acquisition. Merlin, which is based in New York and San Francisco, serves more than 500 hedge funds, each with less than $2 billion in assets, but Wells could eventually target larger firms, Bartlett said. Merlin's 100 employees will join Wells Fargo Securities, the bank's capital markets and investment banking unit. Merlin's managing partners, Stephan Vermut and Aaron Vermut, will continue to lead the business. The deal, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the third quarter. Wells Fargo has been active on the acquisition front in recent months, mostly buying loan portfolios from European banks looking to build capital. on Tuesday, Wells finalized its purchase of a North American energy-lending business from BNP Paribas SA. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions