JPMorgan says Goldman, Morgan Stanley may have interest in Northern Trust

JPMorgan says there are strategic benefits to BNY Mellon (BK) (BNY) from a potential acquisition of Northern Trust (NTRS). The surprising leak of the news may indicate an attempt to solicit other bids, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm believes there could be other interested bidders for Northern, but says a bidding war that results in a very high price would not be received well by the market. BNY would get a “very large boost” to its wealth management business from Northern’s much larger business and some addition to its asset management businesses, contends JPMorgan. The firm believes Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) could have potential interest in some of Northern Trust businesses, and other interested bidders could include potentially a Canadian bank like Royal Bank of Canada (RY). Northern could offer some stable cash flow to Gofman as well as wealth management business for Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and RBC, the firm contends.