National Bank Financial acquires Quebec brokerage

FWR Staff

12 February 2008

Bank brokerage expands private-client reach in Canadian population centers. National Bank Financial (NBF) plans to buy Montreal-based Groupe Financier Everest, a Quebec-based brokerage firm with $550 million in client assets. NBF says the acquisition will strengthen operations in Quebec and make it a leading wealth-management provider in Canada's second most populous province.

"We are very confident in the potential of this transaction for both our institution and our clients," says Richard Rousseau, head of individual-investor services at Montreal-based NBF. "Everest's highly experienced investment advisors have an approach to asset management and commitment to providing broad-based financial advice and service that closely mirrors our own."

One after another

Meanwhile Everest's founder and president Jean-Pierre Dugua says the tie-in with NBF gives his firm "the financial resources, access to innovative products and operating capacity" to grow while maintaining its services standards. "We think clients will be the big winners in this transaction, since it will allow us to focus exclusively on what we do best: helping them reach their financial goals," he adds.

NBF announced its intention to buy Everest a day after it said it had acquired Toronto-based wealth-management firm Aquilon Capital. Toronto is the capital of Ontario, Canada's most populous province.

Terms of acquisition weren't disclosed in either case.

In mid 2007 NBF sold investment bank Putnam Lovell, which specializes in asset- and wealth-management transactions, to New York-based investment bank and prime brokerage Jefferies.

With operations in Canada, Switzerland, the U.S. and the U.K., Montreal-based NBF has about $123 billion in assets under management. -FWR

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