Wells Fargo taps Morgan Stanley veteran Jeff Hogan as new co-head of M&A

By Anirban Sen

NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co on Wednesday named a top Morgan Stanley banker as its new global co-head of mergers and acquisitions, as part of the bank's efforts to ramp up its investment banking franchise under Chief Executive Charles Scharf.

Jeff Hogan, who spent over 25 years at Morgan Stanley, will join Wells Fargo later this year and will be based out of New York. He will lead Wells Fargo's dealmaking unit alongside David DeNunzio, the current global head of M&A at the bank.

Hogan, who most recently served as co-head of global technology M&A at Morgan Stanley, has spent most of his career putting together deals primarily in the technology, media and telecom (TMT) industries.

Notable deals that Hogan advised on include Canadian telecom giant BCE’s $61.7 billion spin-off of Nortel Networks, Suncor Energy’s $18.2 merger with PetroCanada and MGM’s $8.45 billion sale to Amazon.com Inc.

"As co-heads of global M&A, David and Jeff will partner closely with the broader M&A team around strategy, client targeting, and content to further grow our franchise," a Wells Fargo spokeswoman said.

Hogan's hire comes at a time when Wells Fargo is attempting to bulk up its dealmaking franchise under Scharf and win market share from larger investment banking rivals like Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase.

Last year, Wells Fargo broke into the top-10 rankings for M&A advisers for the first time in its history, after advising on several high-profile transactions including Broadcom Inc's $61 billion planned takeover of VMWare Inc, Kroger Co's pending combination with Albertsons, and Intercontinental Exchange Inc's proposed acquisition of Black Knight Inc. (Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York; editing by Diane Craft)