Piper Sandler holds talks to buy Perella Weinberg, WSJ reports (updated)
UPDATE 2-Piper Sandler holds talks to buy Perella Weinberg, WSJ reports Adds details throughout, updates shares
Sept 29 (Reuters) - Investment bank Piper Sandler PIPR.N has been in talks to buy advisory firm Perella Weinberg Partners PWP.O, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal for Perella Weinberg, which has a $1.4 billion market cap, could soon be finalized, the report said. The negotiations, however, were not final and could fall apart, according to the Journal's sources.
Piper Sandler did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Perella Weinberg declined to respond. Piper's shares fell about 5%, while those of Perella jumped over 15%.
A $485 million merger between Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray and New York-based Sandler O'Neill led to the formation of Piper Sandler Companies in January 2020. The deal created a major investment banking firm specializing in the middle market, with leading advisory practices in financial services, healthcare and energy.
Piper Sandler has made nine acquisitions across the United States, India and the United Kingdom, spanning asset management and management consulting services, according to Tracxn.
The investment bank has a market capitalization of a little over $5 billion, according to LSEG.
MIXED INVESTMENT BANKING OUTLOOK
The report of the negotiations comes amid a broad but uneven recovery in dealmaking across major lenders. Bank of America BAC.N anticipates a drop of more than 10% in its third-quarter investment banking fees, a gloomy projection that briefly rattled US bank stocks.
However, JPMorgan Chase JPM.N quickly helped calm market nerves by forecasting solid growth in its own investment banking division. Both outlooks were delivered by top bank executives during a Barclays financial conference earlier this month.
Providing early tangible evidence of a potential rebound, middle-market lender Jefferies JEF.N reported on Monday after markets closed that its third-quarter investment banking revenue jumped 17% year-on-year.
Major U.S. banks will officially kick off the broader third-quarter earnings season in mid-October.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Prakhar Srivastava and Utkarsh Shetti; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Devika Syamnath)