Dresdner Buys Wasserstein Perella

F R A N K F U R T,  Germany, Sept. 18 -- Dresdner Bank plans to buy the U.S.investment bank Wasserstein Perella Group Inc. for about $1.37billion in stock.

The deal disclosed today is the latest in a series oftrans-Atlantic matchups involving European and U.S. financialfirms.

Wasserstein Perella will be merged with Dresdner Bank’sinvestment banking unit Dresdner Kleinwort Benson under the newbrand of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Dresdner Bank’s executiveboard said.

The move, subject to approval by Dresdner’s supervisory board,will strengthen the bank’s investment banking activitiesparticularly in the area of merger-and-acquisition advisoryservices.

More Cross-Atlantic Consolidation

Shareholders of Wasserstein Perella will receive 30.5 millionnew Dresdner Bank ordinary shares from authorized capital, subjectto adjustment depending on Wasserstein’s closing balance sheet. Atrecent prices, this corresponds to a purchase price ofapproximately $1.369 billion, Dresdner said.

Dresdner said the supervisory board is expected to approve thedeal at its Sept. 20 meeting. “After the necessary authorizationsfrom the regulatory authorities have been obtained, the transactionis expected to close within the fourth quarter of 2000,” theGerman bank added.

Wasserstein Perella was founded in 1988 by Bruce Wasserstein andJoseph Perella, who were merger-and-acquisitions bankers at whatwas then First Boston Corp. Wasserstein remains with the firm butPerella left in1993.

Among the deals on which the firm has played a role were the $25billion merger of Swiss Bank Corp and UBS and the $10 billionmerger of Morgan Stanley & Co. and Dean Witter Discover & Co.

Cross-Atlantic consolidation in the financial services industryhas included Credit Suisse Group’s agreement to pay $11.5 billionin cash and stock for the U.S. investment firm Donaldson, Lufkin &Jenrette Inc. Earlier this summer, Swiss banking giant UBS AGagreed to pay $11 billion for the U.S. firm Paine Webber Group Inc.