Wells Fargo Expands in New England, Opens M&A Investment Banking Office in Boston

BOSTON, April 2, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wells Fargo & Company said today that its investment banking unit, Barrington Associates -- a division of Wells Fargo Securities, LLC that specializes in mergers and acquisitions -- has opened an office in Boston to serve its clients in New England and the Northeast.

Gregory W. Benning, a senior investment banker with 15 years of Boston-area M&A experience, has been named managing director of the new office. He has advised on more than 200 successful M&A transactions totaling $15 billion. Most recently, Benning was managing director in the M&A group of A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. in Boston.

"Barrington has built extensive relationships with many of New England's leading private equity firms," said Mike Rosenberg, CEO of Barrington Associates. "Boston is the ideal location for our new office, and Greg Benning -- with his expertise in the consumer, healthcare and technology sectors -- provides the ideal leadership."

Barrington's new office in Boston follows the recent expansion of its Los Angeles, San Francisco and Newport Beach offices. In 2007, its first year as Wells Fargo's principal unit handling M&A transactions, Barrington achieved the most successful year in its 26-year history.

With offices in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Newport Beach, Barrington Associates is one of the nation's leading financial advisory firms serving middle-market companies with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and arranging private capital. Founded in 1982, the firm is among the nation's oldest and largest middle market investment banks specializing in transactions with a valuation range between $25 million and $1 billion.

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $575 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through almost 6,000 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only bank in the U.S., and one of only two banks worldwide, to have the highest credit rating from both Moody's Investors Service, "Aaa," and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, "AAA."