Just over a month after BMO’s $625M acquisition of Burgundy, we’ve got more wealth management consolidation - this time with iA Financial’s ~$600M takeout of RF Capital group (Richardson Wealth), which adds $40B of AUA.
The strategic rationale is clear, as the deal positions IAG as the leading independent wealth platform in the country by assets and grows its geographic footprint outside of Ontario and Quebec by nearly 50%.
With Richardson advisors managing ~$210M per head (roughly 4x iA advisors), it also strengthens iA’s presence in the high net worth segment - and does so at a reasonable price, at 1.5% of AUA or 11.3x EBITDA before synergies.
The transaction will be neutral to core earnings in the first year and accretive by $0.15 and more to core earnings starting in the second year.
Post-synergies management is pointing to 6.7x, which would translate to a ~$36M uplift in EBITDA - half of which will depend on IAG’s ability to recruit new advisors.
Who could be next? Wellington-Altus launched a process late last year to sell up to 30% of the company in a secondary transaction. Clearly, they’re looking for a liquidity event - and at ~$40B of AUA they could be in the strike zone…
