BMO Capital Markets has opened an office in Paris, France, the investment and corporate banking arm of BMO Financial Group said Wednesday.

The new office — BMO’s 27th global office — part of the investment dealer’s strategy to broaden its institutional equity sales and trading services for European clients.

The new office will significantly bolster the firm’s current global institutional equity sales capabilities, BMO Capital Markets says.

It now has offices in 11 cities: Toronto; New York; Paris; London; Zurich; Lugano; Montreal; Vancouver; Boston; Houston; and San Francisco.

The Paris office will be led by Matthieu Debost, who joins as managing director and head of European sales, BMO Capital Markets. He brings a new group, which includes six equity sales professionals, all of whom come from a global investment bank and have experience in covering a broad cross-section of stocks. The new team will strengthen BMO’s existing European institutional equity sales group, the company says.

“By expanding our global footprint to Paris, we will have the leading distribution capability for Canadian equities in Europe,” says Tom Milroy, CEO, BMO Capital Markets. “With this opening, BMO Capital Markets will be the only Canadian investment dealer with four equity sales and trading offices in Europe. In addition, this team will strengthen our ability to distribute U.S. equities and offer a wide range of equity products and services to European investors, especially our top-rated research, where we are recognized leaders.”

IE