Laurentian Bank of Canada LB-T is exiting the retail brokerage business with the sale of $2-billion of assets under administration to Montreal-based financial services giant iA Financial Group IAG-T.
The deal will see about 16,000 client accounts transferred to iA subsidiary iA Private Wealth later this year from Laurentian’s retail full-service investment broker division, Laurentian Bank Securities Inc. In addition, about 30 securities-licensed investment advisers at Laurentian have been “invited” to join iA.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. However, in a statement, Laurentian said the “net proceeds” from the acquisition are “not expected to be material,” and iA Financial Group said the acquisition will have only a “marginal impact” on the company’s solvency ratio, a metric regulators use to gauge the health of insurance companies.
iA spokesperson Pierre Picard said the deal does not include Laurentian’s institutional brokerage business.
CIBC analyst Paul Holden said that the deal is likely valued between $10-million to $20-million, and estimated that the average client account size is about $125,000.
“We assume this is part of the strategic revamp under the new CEO,” Mr. Holden said in a note to clients. “Given the lack of scale, it is unlikely that the brokerage business was profitable and we would view it as non-core.”
The deal is expected to close this summer and falls in line with the vision of Laurentian’s new chief executive officer, Éric Provost, who is looking to improve the bank’s performance by simplifying the business.
Laurentian shares closed Thursday at $27.64. Their 52-week high, set last July 12, was $48.23.
Last year Mr. Provost – who was the bank’s previous head of personal and commercial banking – said Laurentian would become more customer-focused, cut costs by simplifying its operations and improve technology platforms that could also boost revenue.
Over the past year, the bank has experienced several tumultuous endeavours.
Last summer, it launched a bid to attract buyers as part of a strategic review. But when it didn’t draw any offers, the sale process was called off.
Shortly after, Laurentian’s systems crashed during a planned technology upgrade. The outage prevented clients from accessing their accounts for four days.
In early October, the lender suddenly overhauled its leadership, a move that saw the departure of Rania Llewellyn, the first woman to run a major Canadian-based bank. Board chair Michael Mueller also resigned. At the time, Laurentian was more than a year and a half into completing its three-year strategic review under Ms. Llewellyn.
Earlier this week, Laurentian also announced that its head of capital markets, Kelsey Gunderson, has left the bank.
Mr. Provost is expected to announced a new strategic plan this spring that will include looking to expand the bank’s most profitable business, commercial lending.
Last year, Mr. Provost told The Globe and Mail that cutting costs and simplifying the business were not happening at the “right pace.”
“This is what we need to accelerate and put our energy into understanding how can we be simpler but better with our customers,” he said in an interview in December.
Laurentian’s retail brokerage clients will now be handed over to one of Canada’s largest insurance companies and independent wealth managers. iA Financial Group manages more than $218.9-billion in assets as of the end of 2023 and has more than two dozen subsidiaries in financial services.
iA Private Wealth chief executive Stephan Bourbonnais said in a statement that the deal will support iA’s growth and “expand its presence” in the wealth management industry.
Clare O’Hara
Stefanie Marotta