Deal will add $1.5 billion to firm's total client assets
Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Mercer's Canadian Private Wealth business. The acquisition is expected to add approximately $1.5 billion to Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management's total client assets.
The transaction is expected to close within the next three months and is subject to a number of closing conditions, including regulatory approval.
"We are very pleased to have entered into this agreement to acquire Mercer's Canadian Private Wealth business," said Stuart Raftus, Group CAO and President of Wealth Management - Canada, Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. "Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management and Mercer's Canadian Private Wealth business are committed to providing clients with optimal outcomes and experiences."
In a press release, Canaccord said that, upon completion of the transaction, current clients of Mercer Private Wealth will benefit from being serviced by a company that has a strategic focus on providing a full range of highly customized private wealth management services.
Raftus added: "We look forward to making a positive impact for our new clients, partners, and employees in the coming months and years."
The announcement comes just a few weeks after it was revealed that Canaccord’s management group is seeking to take the firm private in a C$1.13 billion deal, taking advantage of a plunge in the share price after last year’s turmoil in capital markets.
The management team — which includes the firm’s chief executive officer, chairman and more than a dozen other senior executives — owns a combined 21% of the shares. Canaccord’s largest outside shareholder also supports the bid of C$11.25 per share, it said.
However, an independent committee of the board said it hasn’t agreed to recommend the offer to shareholders, and has hired Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP as legal counsel and Royal Bank of Canada’s capital markets division as an independent financial advisor.
