A glance at the players in the latest crazy chapter of the BCE buyout shows Chinese wall between investment banking and wealth management is rock solid and sky-high at CIBC and TD bank.
CIBC World Markets is an advisor to BCE on the planned buyout, a lucrative assignment. TD Securities is backing the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, which will also generate all sorts of fees, along with a degree of pain on mark-to-market loan writedowns.
Now, who were the bond funds that just messed up the $35-billion BCE buyout by winning a favourable ruling from the Quebec courts?
Take a bow, CIBC Global Asset Management and TD Asset management, the fund management arms of those same two banks. They are among the fund managers who took up this court challenge in the face of what seemed overwhelming odds, on behalf of clients who stood to take a substantial hit on the value of BCE's existing debt. Wonder what these fixed income managers are saying Thursday morning to their stock jockey colleagues, who likely held BCE in bank-run equity funds.
