Illinois-based financial institution Wells Fargo & Co. is to grow its investment banking operations with the purchase of Barrington Associates, the Los Angeles investment bank. The acquisition is set to provide Wells Fargo with an opportunity to grow its merger advisory services offered to medium-sized companies – currently an active area of mergers and acquisitions.
Barrington, which has two offices in the California area, provides mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance advice to equity firms and a variety of companies with revenues between $25 million and $1 billion. Although it will continue to operate under its current name, Barrington will now operate as part of Wells Fargo’s securities division, and will become the bank’s chief mergers and acquisitions unit.
Wells Fargo, which has an estimated $500 billion worth of assets under management, already has significant investment banking operations in the area, with offices in San Francisco.