By Lauren Hirsch
July 20 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Canada ( RBC ) RY.TO has hired David Mell from Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) & Co WFC.N to be a managing director in its investment banking consumer and retail group in New York, an RBC spokeswoman said.
Mell, who starts this week, is one of several new hires RBC has made in recent months, as it expands its U.S. consumer and retail investment banking practice, the spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Reuters previously reported RBC had hired two new group heads of its U.S. consumer and retail practice, Andrew van der Vord and David Frank, from Credit Suisse Group AG CSGN.S and Wells Fargo respectively L2N18F23F .
"RBC is increasingly focused on providing U.S. clients with access to global M&A opportunities," said Frank, who also started this week. "The consumer and retail sectors are two of the active sectors in which the firm sees the opportunity to grow."
Mell, who will report to Frank, will focus on advising retail and food distribution companies. His most recent advisory role was the sale of Haddon House Food Products to food distributor United Natural Foods , Inc. UNFI.O
Recent M&A advisory roles for RBC in the sector include home improvement retailer Lowe's Companies Inc's LOW.N $2.4 billion acquisition of smaller home improvement retailer RONA inc, which closed in May.
Year to date, RBC has jumped from 13th to sixth in league table rankings for US consumer and retail M&A, compared with the same period a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.