Wachovia Open to More Insurance Acquisitions

Wachovia Corp. is looking to make more acquisitions in the insurance brokerage business, but don’t expect any immediate mergers, chairman and chief executive officer Ken Thompson said.

Speaking at the UBS Global Financial Services Conference, Thompson said the company would be interested in small acquisitions that “would fit our banking footprint.”

Wachovia will only do deals that “make sense for existing shareholders,” he said.

Thompson said the company is focused on spurring growth through its main strategies: employee engagement, customer loyalty, improving cost structure, greater governance and financial strength.

Wachovia expects double-digit profit gains in each of its business lines in 2004 and expects that the market-related business will continue to show strong growth as the market environment improves.

Thompson said the company is well on its way to achieving its goal of 500,000 new checking accounts in 2004. The company reported opening 180,000 new checking accounts so far this year.

In terms of its brokerage business, Thompson said the company has set its goal to achieve pretax margin of 20 percent by 2005.

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Topics Mergers & Acquisitions