Macquarie Group is continuing to expand into the North American financial services sector with its fourth purchase in as many months.
The company said yesterday that it had bought Canadian wealth management business, Blackmont Capital Inc, for $C93.3 million ($A95.16 million) to expand the distribution of its brokerage offerings in the country.
The deal takes close to $A900 million the amount Macquarie Group has spent on buying an investment bank and funds management and advice groups in the US and Canada since August.
Macquarie will pay cash to CI Financial for the investment dealer division of Blackmont Capital Inc.
Blackmont will become part of Macquarie’s banking and financial services group and be rebranded Macquarie Private Wealth.
The acquisition does not include Blackmont’s capital markets division which will stay with CI Financial.
The acquisition is expected to be finalised in the first quarter of calendar 2010, and is subject to regulatory approval.
Macquarie said the impact of the purchase on its regulatory capital surplus was anticipated to be immaterial.
Blackmont is based in Toronto and has 13 retail branches, with about 450 employees including over 130 investment advisers.
"We think there is a real opportunity in the Canadian market for a differentiated, independent client offering," Macquarie banking and financial services group global head Peter Maher said in yesterday’s statement.
"This acquisition gives us the opportunity to work with a strong leadership and advisor team, build our client offering, add further quality advisors to our team and be seen as an innovative, independent provider with an international presence."
The Blackmont acquisition will take Macquarie’s total employee numbers in Canada to nearly 1,000.
Macquarie has had a permanent and growing presence in Canada since opening its first office in 1998. Macquarie employs over 470 people in Canada with offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Winnipeg.
It also has had close investing relationships with a number of big pension funds in Ontario and Toronto in particular.
In late September Macquarie announced it was buying Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller (an investment bank focused on financial institutions) for around $A153 million.
Also in September Macquarie bought Tristone Capital Global, a Canadian energy advisory group, for $US105 million (or nearly $A120 million at the time).
In August Macquarie Group announced the acquisition of Delaware Investments, a US asset management firm, for $US428 ($A516) million.
The latest deal comes three days before the bank reports its 2009 first half result on Friday.
Some analysts tip profit of about $490 million for the six months to the end of September, down 20% from the same time last year but above Macquarie’s own recently issued guidance of around $435 million.
Macquarie shares fell $1.02, or nearly 2%, to $52.18.
