Mubadala Capital has started its first co-investment fund, raising US$554 million from international investors, according to a report by SEMAFOR. The asset management arm of Mubadala Investment Co., Adu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, bought CI Financial Corp. in a $4.7-billion take-private deal announced last year. CI Global Asset Management recently announced it’s acquiring Invesco’s Canadian funds business.
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GreenShield has acquired Kii Health’s Canadian mental health services segment. The services, including Kii’s employee and family assistance program, student assistance program and online cognitive behavioural therapy services, will be integrated into GreenShield+, its digital health and benefits platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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RFA Capital Holdings Inc. has now become RFA Financial Inc., after acquiring Artis Real Estate Investment Trust in an all-share deal announced last year. Artis common unitholders received one pre-consolidation RFA common share for each Artis common unit held. RFA shares were then consolidated on a three-for-one basis. Former Artis unitholders now own 68% of the combined company. The Artis common units and Series E and I preferred units have been delisted from the TSX.
The combined management team includes Ben Rodney as president and CEO (previously in the same role at RFA Capital), and from Artis, Samir Manji as executive chair, Jaclyn Koenigas CFO and Melody Lo as COO. In a release, RFA said the merger has created a “scaled and dynamic financial services platform, featuring a Schedule I bank and a leading mortgage origination platform, supported by a high-quality commercial real estate portfolio.”
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Calgary-based Neo Financial has raised $68.5 million for its inaugural securitization program, which it says is a first of its kind for a Canadian fintech. In a release, it said that by securitizing its credit assets, it is “adopting the capital-efficient model already used by the world’s largest banks and allowing it to grow its lending portfolio to billions of dollars without being constrained by equity-funded lending.” Institutional investors including AIMCo, Northleaf Capital Partners and Plaza Venture, as well as other parties, participated in the financing. Neo’s offerings include credit cards, savings and chequing accounts, investing accounts and mortgages.
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Navacord and Acera have completed their merger, announced in December. The combined company forms one of the country’s largest privately held insurance, employee benefits and wealth advisory firms, with $7.2 billion in insurance and employee benefits premium, and $7.5 billion in retirement assets under management. It will operate under the Navacord name once the integration is completed on Nov. 1.
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After closing its acquisition of independent investment bank Cormark Securities Inc. in December, ATB Financial has launched ATB Cormark Capital Markets. The combination of its capital markets arm with Cormark’s platform spanning investment banking, sales, trading and research expands its reach, scale and ability to support corporate and institutional clients, it said in a release. Terms of the deal, first announced last August, were not disclosed.
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Morguard Corp. has rebranded Lincluden Investment Management to Morguard Lincluden Global Investments, after acquiring the firm last year. (It made its first investment in Lincluden in 2015.) Morguard Lincluden manages more than $4 billion in assets on behalf of pension plans, sub-advisory, First Nation Trusts and not for profits. Morguard Corp.’s managed portfolio of assets is valued at $18.9 billion.
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U.K. insurer Beazley has agreed to a sweetened US$10.9-billion cash takeover offer by Zurich Insurance. The offer, which is pending due diligence, represents a 60% premium to Beazley’s closing share price on Jan. 16. Beazley is a leader in specialty insurance, including cyber, marine and aviation and fine art. Zurich has made multiple bids for the firm, but until now has been rebuffed.