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NEW YORK (Reuters) -
Wachovia Corp is considering buying independent auto-finance company WFS Financial Inc., a newspaper report said Tuesday.
A completed deal could come over the next few days, the Wall Street Journal cited people familiar with the matter as saying.
Another suitor, however, may win Irvine, California-based WFS (up $0.96 to $59.88, Research), which originates, securitizes and services loans through 8,300 auto dealers. Wachovia (up $0.14 to $51.04, Research), the fifth-largest U.S. bank by market value, is among those exploring a deal, the Journal said.
Neither Wachovia nor WFS was immediately available for comment.
The report said Wachovia Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kennedy Thompson had raised the possibility of further purchases since last year's $13.7 billion acquisition of Alabama-based SouthTrust Corp.
The newspaper noted that the stock price of WFS is near an all-time high it reached earlier this month. In Nasdaq trading on Monday, WFS shares were at $59.88, up 1.6 percent, giving it a market capitalization of $2.5 billion.
As interest rates rise, WFS is in a relatively desirable part of the business of making car loans, the Journal said.
The company focuses on lending to the "prime" part of the market, or car buyers who have the lowest credit risk.
At the end of 2004, WFS was servicing loans valued at a total of $11 billion in nearly 900,000 customer accounts, the newspaper said.
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