The Globe and Mail

Consolidation is suddenly in high gear among money managers, as Addenda Capital won a $306-million bid Monday from insurer Co-operators Group, the second large takeover in the sector in a week.
Co-operators, a firm focused on car and home insurance, deepens its pension fund management expertise by paying 1 per cent of assets for a Montreal-based firm with a fixed income expertise. Publicly traded Addenda was founded in 1996 and oversees $29-billion of client assets.
Royal Bank of Canada bid $1.4-billion or 1.95 per cent of assets last week for money manger Phillips Hager & North. All the domestic banks and insurers want to broaden their wealth management expertise, so there are widespread expectations that more deals are coming. The price of fund managers has fallen slightly in the wake of the credit crisis, while banks and insurers are flush with capital. The few remaining employee-owned money managers can give their aging founders or second-generation owners lucrative paydays by selling to these institutions.
Scotia Capital Inc. was Co-operators' advisor on the deal, and law firm Borden Ladner Gervais was legal counsel. Co-operators has long been seen as an IPO candidate, as the insurer has growth ambitions that it may not be able to finance as a policyholder-owned company.
CIBC World Markets worked with Addenda, with Pricewaterhouse
Coopers acting as independent. On the legal  front, Fasken
Martineau DuMoulin was counsel to Addenda while McCarthy Tetrault dealth with the legal needs of Addenda’s management shareholders.
Co-operators won a right to match any offer and an $8-millon break fee from Addenda.