More capital raising is intended to reboot the challenger bank
by Christine Dobby
Canadian investment firm Globalive Corp. and a group of backers have closed their acquisition of Wealth One Bank of Canada, with plans to raise more capital soon to grow its lending business.
Toronto-based Globalive teamed up with half a dozen players in mortgages and wealth management to buy all the shares of the small digital bank. The Canadian government approved the transaction in June.
The deal ends a long period of uncertainty for the bank after the federal government raised concerns in late 2022 about the alleged ties to the Chinese government of three of its original shareholders and ordered them to divest their stakes.
Globalive Chairman Anthony Lacavera said the bank’s new owners are strategic players who have committed “permanent capital” to the venture.
“Everybody has a forever horizon. So there’s no pressure to generate liquidity, and that enables us to plan very long term,” he said in an interview. Wealth One will continue its focus on underserved segments in the banking industry — self-employed individuals, entrepreneurs and new Canadians — while using technology solutions to expand its client base over time, Lacavera said.
The group of backers includes direct-investment platform Beedie Capital Partners; lender Grasslands Finance Corp.; Chris Kayat and Gary Mauris, co-founders of mortgage company Dominion Lending Centres; and wealth-management firm Optimize Financial Group.
Canadian mortgage veteran John Webster will be chair of the new Wealth One board. Webster — who was chief executive officer of Maple Trust Co. before joining Bank of Nova Scotia in 2006 when the bank bought the smaller mortgage player — is also investing in the new venture.
“It’s a great opportunity to relaunch a challenger bank,” Webster said in an interview, adding he was initially skeptical but convinced to sign on due to the roster of “strong Canadian investors” and Lacavera’s technology-focused plan to help expand the bank’s lending and deposit capacity.
The investor group did not disclose a price for the transaction but a person familiar with the deal said it was about C$30 million ($22.1 million). The person asked not to be named discussing confidential matters.
Lacavera, who founded Canadian wireless startup Wind Mobile in 2009, is aiming to raise a further C$200 million in growth capital for the bank later this year, he said.
Wealth One had just C$516 million in assets as of April 30, most of which were mortgages, according to data from Canada’s banking regulator. Although it launched in 2016 with a focus on serving the Chinese-Canadian community, Lacavera said the bank has since diversified its client base and about 20% of its customers today are Asian-Canadian.
