Wells Fargo Chairman sees a lot more financial M&A

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) - Wells Fargo (WFC.N) Chairman Richard Kovacevich said on Wednesday that he expects a lot more consolidation in the financial services sector but declined to say whether his company was interested in participating.

"I think there's going to be a lot of mergers and acquisitions for either good reasons or because people don't have choices," told Reuters ahead of his presentation at an Association of Corporate Growth 2008 conference in Beverly Hills.

Kovacevich declined to comment to Reuters on whether the company is interested in buying Washington Mutual Inc (WM.N) or Wachovia Corp WB.N but indicated he was interested in buying other banks in distress.

"Wells Fargo often buys fixer uppers .... Given the financial conditions today I feel like a kid in a candy store. There is a lot out there today," he said in his presentation.

The executive told Reuters he was hoping for an improvement to credit markets in the first half of next year.

"Hopefully between the first of the year and no later than the middle of the year ... (things will) for things to get more normal than they are now," he said.

(Reporting by Gina Keating in Beverly Hills, writing by

Sinead Carew, editing by Richard Chang))