(Bloomberg) - Wells Fargo & Co. nabbed a spot among the top 10 advisers on mergers and acquisitions last year, a first for the firm as it ramps up its investment bank under Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf.
The bank ranked eighth in 2022, more than tripling its market share from the prior year and pulling off an increase in total deal value despite the down year for the industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Global deal volume fell by a third as companies stayed on the sidelines through choppy markets.
“You’re seeing the result of a down year for the marketplace and us having made some progress on a few important deals with a few important clients,” Jon Weiss, head of Wells Fargo’s corporate and investment bank, said in an interview. “We had a good year in a tough year for the market generally and M&A in particular.”
Wells Fargo, the fourth-biggest US bank, has been seeking to build its presence on Wall Street since Scharf took over in 2019. Within months, he split the corporate and investment bank into its own division reporting directly to him. Weiss has led the unit since 2020, and last year the firm hired Tim O’Hara, previously of BlackRock Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG, as head of banking.
The strategy has been to focus on business lines and industries where Wells Fargo already has credibility, and lean on existing C-suite relationships to ensure Wells Fargo is included on deals. The biggest transactions Wells Fargo advised on last year were Broadcom Inc.’s planned acquisition of VMWare Inc., Kroger Co.’s pending tie-up with Albertsons Cos. and Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s proposed takeover of Black Knight Inc.
Still, Weiss isn’t declaring mission accomplished yet. Executives have long seen investment-banking growth as a years-long effort, and Wells Fargo remains under a Federal Reserve-imposed asset cap limiting its size to the level at the end of 2017.
Last year’s gain “may be reflecting a lot of progress, but I think until you stitch together several good years — including in growth years as opposed to down years — it’s just a data point on a screen,” Weiss said. “It doesn’t necessarily prove a point yet.”
Read more about Wells Fargo’s investment-banking ambitions
By Hannah Levitt
