From hunter to hunted in under a week. That’s the scenario for Wachovia which was in the hunt for Morgan Stanley less than a week ago. Now they are being circled by Citi, Wells Fargo and Spain’s Santander. Bloomberg reports that potential buyers may follow the Morgan strategy of letting the bank be seized by regulators and then picking up the plum assets on the cheap.
Santander is a surprising player in this drama to me given the weakness of the Spanish domestic market and the fact that it is still digesting portions of ABN Amro bought at the top of the market.
