Wells Fargo Close to Selling Asset Management Business: Report

Wells Fargo is close to selling its asset management business, and the likely buyer is a private equity consortium headed by GTCR and Reverence Capital Partners, according to Reuters.

Citing “people familiar with the matter,” Reuters reported Thursday that the wirehouse is in exclusive talks to sell its asset management business, which manages over $607 billion for clients, to the consortium.

Wells Fargo declined to comment. GTCR and Reverence Capital Partners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bloomberg reported last month that the private equity consortium, Ameriprise Financial and CI Financial Corp. were weighing second-round bids for Wells Fargo’s asset management arm, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those offers were due in late December, said one of the people at the time, asking not to be identified because the matter wasn’t public. Wells Fargo was expected to possibly whittle down the auction to one or two suitors after the next round, depending on how good the offers were, the person said.

Reuters did not report Thursday how much the consortium is expected to pay for the Wells Fargo division. The unit could fetch more than $3 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Wells Fargo also said early this month it’s exiting the wealth management business outside the U.S. in a move intended primarily to simplify and focus on its core domestic business.