On May 9, 2019, Natixis Investment Managers and Fiera Capital Corporation announced that they had entered into a long-term strategic partnership.
Under the terms of the partnership, Natixis Investment Managers (“Natixis”) will acquire 11% of the total issued and outstanding shares of Fiera Capital Corporation (“Fiera”) and will gain a seat on Fiera’s board of directors, which will be filled by Natixis’ Chief Executive Officer, Jean Raby. In addition, the parties have entered into a long-term distribution agreement providing for Fiera as Natixis’ preferred Canadian distributor and a purchase agreement pursuant to which Fiera will acquire Natixis’ Canadian operations.
Natixis will acquire its minority interest in Fiera through the purchase of 10.68 million Class A subordinate voting shares (“Class A Shares”) from a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Bank of Canada and DJM Capital for CAD$128.16 million. Additionally, Fiera will pay CAD$29.40 million to repurchase for cancellation 2.45 million Fiera Class A Shares from a subsidiary of National Bank of Canada. Natixis will hold its shares in Fiera through Natixis Investment Managers Canada Holdings Ltd.
Following Fiera’s acquisition of Natixis’ Canadian operations and funds, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019, the manager of the funds will continue to operate as a separate legal entity and will retain its existing senior management team. This transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
Natixis, founded in 2006 and headquartered in Paris and Boston, is an asset management firm with US$924.5 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2018.
Fiera (TSX: FSZ), founded in 2003 and headquartered in Montreal, is an independent asset management firm providing wealth management services to institutional, retail and private clients. It has approximately CAD$144.9 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2019.
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