Wells Fargo's Big Deal: The Strong Keep Getting Stronger

As was widely reported, Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) were the two top bidders for Wachovia (WB). After Wells dropped out, Citi got some help from the FDIC and a sweetheart deal. For about $2 billion in stock it landed Wachovia's banking operations. Evidently, Wells Fargo management was pretty stunned at the deal Citi got and decided it could do better and still not overpay. Wells will now buy the entire company for $15 billion in stock, without any assistance from the government.

This a big deal for Wells Fargo. Despite heavy exposure to mortgages in the most problematic states in the U.S. (notably California, where of course Wachovia has a huge stake), Wells has weathered the storm well so far as its underwriting standards have proven tighter than most competitors. Wells has made money every quarter since this crisis began. Now the company is issuing $20 billion in new stock (nearly 20% dilution to current shareholders) to pay for this deal and raise a little extra capital.

Investors clearly think it is a great deal for Wells, as the stock is trading up 8%. As with most of these bank deals, the long term benefits for strong deposit institutions will likely far exceed the short term losses incurred by taking on even more bad mortgage debt. The trend continues... the strong are getting even stronger as the weak die off. The problem, of course, might be that we wind up with a few even larger big banks that are perceived as "too big to fail."

Full Disclosure: No positions in the companies mentioned at the time of writing, but positions may change at any time.

Comments

[Ishortyou:]

Now that the 'bail out' plan came through, Wachovia needs fast to take advantage of it, it needs to sell its toxic loan portafolio from its banking subsidiaries around 122 billion if not more to the government close to even cost prices and take serious advantage of the tax break plan and remediate their banking book of business. They also need to contact their customers that did the run on the bank like chickens without head to bring their deposits back and reassure them that they are ok and there is not reason to panic because of the talking heads of FOX news and rest of media and the incompetence of the FDIC. This strategy will demonstrate to the public that the current 'bail out' plan is working and that Wachovia is the first product of it.

2008 Oct 05 07:56 AM

[hunter:]

Amen ishortyou. With the rescue package in place and relaxation of mark to market accounting rules the best thing for Wachovia may be to remain independent. No matter what Citi does Wachovia shareholders will decide this issue. Neither Citi nor Wells are offering a fair price for Wachovia and the large shareholders of Wachovia will see that.

2008 Oct 05 08:50 AM

[ljk343@cm.t...:]

Do we know which parts are for sale and why the parts are attractive to both Wells and Citi

2008 Oct 05 11:16 AM