Bank of Montreal is shaking up its global wealth management operations. In a deal announced early Monday, BMO will sell its EMEA asset management business to Ameriprise Financial for $1.09 billion in cash. Ameriprise said in a release the deal allows it to add $124 billion in assets under management in Europe.
The two companies also struck an agreement that will see BMO offer some of its U.S. asset management clients the option of transitioning to Ameriprise’s Columbia Threadneedle Investments operations. The announcement comes a few months after Bloomberg News reported BMO was considering options for its asset management business.
BMO said that due to accounting standards, it will book a $745-million writedown of goodwill on the assets involved in the Ameriprise deal in its fiscal second quarter. The bank also noted that the transaction will boost its common equity Tier 1 ratio by 29 basis points. As of the end of January, BMO’s key capital ratio stood at 12.4 per cent.
Source: BNN Bloomberg
By Noah Zivitz
