Wachovia Completes Prudential Securities Merger

By Staff Writer

July 01, 2003 at 08:00 PM

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NU Online News Service, July 1, 2003, 4:03 p.m. EDT – Wachovia Corp., Charlotte, N.C., and Prudential Financial Inc., New York, say they have merged their retail brokerage businesses to form a new broker-dealer, Wachovia Securities L.L.C., Richmond, Va.

Wachovia owns 62% of Wachovia Securities, and Prudential owns 38%.

Wachovia is a large bank holding company that used to be known as First Union Corp. First Union greatly expanded its retail brokerage operations by acquiring Wheat First Butcher Singer, Richmond, a large regional brokerage firm, in 1998.

First Union acquired Wachovia Corp., Winston-Salem, N.C., a large regional bank, in 2001, then changed its own name to Wachovia Corp. Around the same time, the new Wachovia Corp. changed the name of its securities unit to Wachovia Securities.

The new Wachovia Securities is the third biggest retail brokerage in the United States, with more than $500 billion in client assets and 3,400 retail locations.

Prudential Securities will begin operating as Wachovia Securities by the end of the year, according to Wachovia and Prudential.

Daniel Ludeman, the head of the old Wachovia Securities, is president of the new, combined Wachovia Securities. He reports to Donald McMullen Jr., president of Wachovia Corp.'s capital management group.

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