Skip to main content

A UBS office building.Mark Lennihan/The Associated Press

Fiera Capital Corp. is acquiring UBS Global Asset Management (Canada) Inc.'s Canadian fixed income, equity and domestic balanced account business.

Assets under management in the $52-million deal are valued at about $8-billion.

It's the latest acquisition for Quebec-based Fiera, which announced the purchase in October of Calgary-based Canadian Wealth Management Group Inc. to expand Fiera's private wealth platform in Alberta and across Western Canada. Financial terms of that transaction weren't disclosed.

Earlier this year, publicly traded Fiera almost doubled its assets with the purchase of Natcan Investment Management from National Bank of Canada.

The UBS transaction reinforces Fiera's leading position in asset management in Canada, Fiera chairman and chief executive officer Jean-Guy Desjardins said in a news release Tuesday.

"This acquisition will also further diversify Fiera's Canadian client base and expand its global reach."

Fiera said it will become Canada's third largest independent asset manager with $63-billion in assets under management, once the UBS deal closes. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013.

"We have selected Fiera, one of Canada's most respected asset managers, as they can provide our clients with the high quality and competitive domestic investment capabilities they need together with the personalized service that they are accustomed to at UBS Global Asset Management," UBS Global Assets Management (Canada) Inc. president and CEO Marcel Larochelle said in the news release.

Financing for the transaction was arranged through National Bank of Canada.

Mr. Desjardins said in an interview that the opportunity to bid for the UBS assets presented itself about three weeks ago and Fiera had to act quickly.

"There are good synergies here," he said about the new acquisition.

There is also very little overlap between Fiera and the UBS assets in their client base, he added.

The transaction will help boost the Fiera team in management and investment quality, said Mr. Desjardins, adding the deal-making is far from over.

"We want to make some acquisitions in the United States," he said.

A New York office was opened last year to start building a U.S. presence, said Mr. Desjardins.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe