Wells Fargo to Buy N.M. Financial Firm

Wells Fargo & Co., the seventh-largest U.S. bank, agreed to buy First Place Financial Corp. for $174.5 million in stock to expand in New Mexico and Colorado. Wells will pay 4.6 million of its shares for all the shares of First Place Financial, New Mexico’s biggest independent financial institution, with $923 million in assets. San Francisco-based Wells, with $205 billion in assets and more than 5,800 branches from California to Ohio, including 159 in New Mexico. First Place shares rose $5.94 to close at $78 in over-the-counter trading of just 300 shares; Wells Fargo stock fell $1.13 to close at $37.94 on the NYSE.