Laurentian Bank to sell $2 billion in wealth-management assets
Laurentian Bank of Canada struck a deal to sell $2 billion of assets under administration to a subsidiary of iA Financial Group in a bid to further simplify its business after a tumultuous year.
Net proceeds from the transaction, which is expected to close in the summer, “are not expected to be material,” the Montreal-based bank said in a statement Thursday.
Under the deal, Laurentian Bank’s retail investment-broker division will transfer about 16,000 client accounts to iA Private Wealth Inc., iA Financial said in a separate statement. About 30 financial advisers are also invited to join the iA Private Wealth division.
Quebec City-based iA Financial is one of Canada’s biggest insurance and wealth-management companies.
“The transaction supports Laurentian Bank’s strategic focus on simplification, and concentrating on areas of business where it can win and be more competitive,” the bank said in the statement.
The firm, which is now Canada’s ninth-largest bank by market capitalization, conducted a strategic review last year but failed to find a buyer. It then parted ways with chief executive Rania Llewellyn in the midst of a widespread system failure that affected customer deposits, bill payments and other services.
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