Stop me if you’ve heard this before (actually, please keep reading): A Wall Street giant is looking at Texas as an expansion candidate.

Texas and Florida are on the short list for a possible second headquarters for New York-based Apollo Global Management. “We’ve shared with our teams across Apollo and Athene that we plan to establish a second headquarters in either Texas or South Florida, alongside NYC,” an Apollo spokesperson told Bloomberg after the Financial Times reported the plans.

The FT identified Austin as a candidate, and also said Nashville was under consideration. Apollo President Jim Zelter declined to say which way Apollo was leaning, telling Bloomberg Surveillance on Thursday: “We will see what the process leads us to.”

Big finance continues to make big moves in the state. Goldman Sachs’ new $500 million downtown Dallas building will have room for more than 5,000 employees, easily encompassing the 4,500 current employees in the area. Charles Schwab moved its headquarters to Westlake in 2021. JPMorgan has more than 30,000 employees in Texas — more than in New York.

“Dallas and Texas as a whole is becoming a financial hub for the country,” said John Steinmetz, the National Bank Holdings executive vice chair, who came by the Bloomberg Dallas office this week with CEO Tim Laney.

I asked Laney about whether Texas or Florida — both of which are home to National Banks Holdings outlets — would have an advantage in wooing Apollo. “I have no idea,” he said with a smile. “But I appreciate the question.”

The Fine Line

Laney, Steinmetz and I talked about a lot more than Apollo. Colorado-based National Bank Holdings closed earlier this year on the buyout of Vista, where Steinmetz was CEO.

“Our cultures match. We love what’s happening in the state of Texas,” Laney said in the interview.

Steinmetz had considered an IPO as well for Vista. The two companies began exploring a deal more than four years ago and found the time was finally right.

“This just made a lot of sense and was a great option for all of our stakeholders,” said Steinmetz.

With Bloomberg scooping the news last week that Citigroup executives are considering whether to buy another bank — specifically, a major regional lender — I asked whether more M&A is in the future as National Bank Holdings’ profile rises. Taking over Vista created a company with more than $12 billion of assets.

“From day one, we have believed in optionality, and we will continue to have conversations,” Laney said.

Regional Roundup

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• Thousands of Dumped Wind-Turbine Blades Prompt Crackdown in Texas
• Musk’s Boring Co. Sought to Build Underground Tunnel in Houston
• Shale’s Bryan Sheffield Teams With Inpex to Boost Australia Gas
• Microsoft in Talks With Chevron, Engine No. 1 Over $7 Billion Texas Power Plant

Capital, Code & Crude

Sysco shareholders gulped after the Houston-based supplier of food to commercial kitchens agreed to a $29.1 billion buyout of closely held Jetro Restaurant Depot. The stock tumbled the most since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. The deal was Texas-sized, with Sysco taking on $21 billion of new and hybrid debt to fund the cash-and-stock transaction. As Bloomberg colleagues Deirdre Hipwell and Janet Freund describe it, New York-based Jetro functions as a sort of Costco-style business for smaller restaurant owners and operators. And while it may not be a household name, it’s plenty large. Revenue was $16 billion last year.