Wachovia to Purchase Cameron M. Harris & Co.

Wachovia Corporation announced it is acquiring Cameron M. Harris & Company
(CMH), a Charlotte, N.C.-based insurance broker that specializes in commercial and personal risk management and employee benefits.

Wachovia noted that with $27 million in revenues, Cameron M. Harris & Co. is the largest privately held insurance broker headquartered in the Carolinas and ranks in the top 50 largest brokers in the United States. CMH has offices in Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina and in Columbia, S.C.

CMH leaders include Cameron Harris, president; Gene Link, COO; Billy Richard, CFO; James Walker, executive vice president for Commercial Insurance; and Harold J. Wilkerson, executive vice president for Commercial Insurance. The company’s approximately 200 employees will join and strengthen Holton’s Wachovia Insurance Services team. Harris will be a managing director and Link will continue as COO of Cameron M. Harris & Co.

The CMH transaction marks the latest development in a growth strategy that has dramatically expanded Wachovia’s commercial insurance group over the past two years. This strategic expansion will bring the projected year-end combined revenues of Wachovia Insurance Services to approximately $150 million, ranking it among the Top 15 insurance brokers in the U. S.

Since the third quarter of 2000, Wachovia has escalated its strategy of acquiring client-focused insurance agency operations in both product and service offerings located in important geographic markets. This strategy was simultaneously embraced by both legacy First Union and legacy Wachovia, before the corporations merged on Sept. 1, 2001.

Wachovia purchased Barry, Evans, Josephs & Snipes in 1999; Davis Baldwin and The Tribus Companies in 2000; and Hamilton Dorsey Alston and the assets of Crawford, Slevin & Hicks in 2001. Also in the last two years, additional smaller agencies have been purchased to enhance Wachovia’s insurance capabilities geographically and within various industries. The growth strategy has extended Wachovia’s presence in markets along the East Coast including Tampa, Atlanta, Northern Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C.