Wells Fargo to Buy Oregon Asset Management Company

Wells Fargo & Co., the fourth-biggest U.S. bank, agreed Tuesday to buy Portland, Ore.-based asset manager Benson Associates to bolster its fund business.

Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed. The acquisition would give the San Francisco-based bank a company with $1.3 billion of assets under management, Wells Fargo said.

Benson, which markets its small-capitalization value fund to institutional investors, focuses on companies whose stocks it perceives as being inexpensive relative to their earnings prospects. Benson would become part of Wells Fargo’s institutional investments group, which has $294 billion in assets.

Wells Fargo has been buying fund companies in recent years to boost the number of management styles it offers.

In November, Wells Fargo bought most of Commerzbank’s Montgomery Asset Management unit, a purchase that gave the bank less than $5 billion in assets. Wells Fargo also bought Nelson Capital Management of Palo Alto last year, adding 400 wealthy clients in Northern California. Terms of those purchases weren’t disclosed.