Bank of Montreal has confirmed it has reached a deal to buy F&C Asset Management in a deal valuing the firm at £708m that it set to result in a group with assets under management of £162bn.
The news follows F&C’s announcement yesterday that the bank had made an offer valuing the company at 120p per share, a 28.3 per cent premium to its share price of 93.5p at the start of the day.
The bank has also agreed to pay a 2p dividend to F&C shareholders in March bringing the total cost for the purchase to 122p per share.
The acquisition doubles the assets under management for the bank’s Global Asset Management division from £80bn to £162bn. The acquisition is still subject to shareholder approval.
In a stock exchange announcement today, the bank said F&C is “intended to form the centrepiece of [its] European operations”.
It said that the bank plans to bring over some of its existing products into the UK and European markets using F&C’s distribution network.
F&C revealed today that its AUM had fallen from £90.1bn to £82.1bn in the three months to the end of 2013, due to the previously announced withdrawal of money by Achmea.
However, its consumer business saw £611m of net inflows during the period, with the retail business securing its fifth consecutive quarter of net inflows.
