Deal Journal’s Deal Yenta, Heidi N. Moore, sees some signs pointing to an eventual sale of St. Louis-based Wachovia Securities. As I pointed out in Tuesday’s column, the forced sale of Wachovia Bank leaves the securities unit, along with asset manager Evergreen Investments, orphaned within the Wachovia holding-company structure.

Moore points out that Wachovia hasn’t broken out the two units’ earnings, or released a new balance sheet for what’s left of the company. That could mean a sale is already in the works. In addition, she points out:

Independence will be a tough slog, partially because Wachovia has $9.8 billion of preferred shares and around $800 million in annual dividends to pay on them. In addition, the disruption of the government-brokered sale could spook customers of the retail brokerage or asset management division and cause them to pull their money.

In a separate Wall Street Journal story (subscription required), analyst Gerard Cassidy of RBC Capital Markets also predicts a sale:

I think they may discover the best course of action is liquidation of those assets. I would be surprised if they decided to run it independently.

As to possible buyers, Moore thinks Morgan Stanley would be a good fit for the brokerage business. A private equity firm like Bain Capital may be interested, she says, “particularly in the asset management business.”

Moore quotes analyst Jefferson Haralson of Keefe Bruyette & Woods as saying that Wachovia Securities might be worth $6.7 billion in a sale. That’s less than the $6.8 billion that Wachovia paid for A.G. Edwards in a deal that closed a year ago today, and Wachovia already had a big brokerage business before it bought A.G. Edwards. If Haralson’s numbers are correct, the Wachovia-Edwards merger, like so many others, turned out to be a huge value destroyer.