(Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co., disposing of units to simplify operations, agreed to sell its corporate trust business to Australia’s Computershare Ltd. for $750 million.
About 2,000 employees will transfer to Computershare as part of a transaction that’s expected to close in the latter half of this year, Wells Fargo said Tuesday in a statement. The buyer said the business will complement its presence in North America.
Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf has been selling off non-essential businesses to improve profitability after years of scandals. The bank announced plans last month to sell its $603 billion asset manager to GTCR LLC and Reverence Capital Partners, and in December it agreed to divest a $10 billion private student-loan book. The firm’s rail-leasing unit also is on the chopping block, Scharf said in January.
“This transaction is consistent with Wells Fargo’s strategy of focusing on businesses that are core to our consumer and corporate clients,” David Marks, head of Wells Fargo Commercial Capital, said in the statement.
The corporate-trust business provides trust and agency services in connection with public and private debt securities. It has about 26,000 mandates across a range of securities and bond issuances, according to a separate statement from Computershare.
“It is a clear fit with our successful Canadian corporate trust operations and existing U.S. operations,” Computershare CEO Stuart Irving said in that statement. The purchase “provides scale with a top-four market position, a platform for ongoing growth and increased leverage to long term growth trends and interest rates.”
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