Canadian mutual fund manager CI Financial plans to go private for about C$4.7 billion ($3.4 billion) in a deal backed by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Capital.
Shareholders of Toronto-based CI will be offered C$32 a share in cash, a 33% premium to last week’s closing price. The company will stay headquartered in Canada, and insiders will roll some of their shares into the privatized company, according to a Nov. 25 statement.
CI Chief Executive Officer Kurt MacAlpine will continue to lead the firm. “Mubadala Capital invests with a long-term outlook and represents long-term capital — providing stability and certainty for CIʼs clients and employees,” he said in a statement.
CI had C$518 billion in client assets as of Sept. 30 and is one of Canada’s largest sellers of retail mutual funds not owned by a large bank or insurance company. It will continue operating in the U.S. as Corient, where it owns a large network of registered investment advisory firms that it accumulated in an acquisition spree over the last several years.
Including debt, the price implies a total value for CI of about C$12.1 billion. The company will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange following closing of the transaction, but CI will remain a reporting issuer in Canada because of its debentures and notes outstanding.
The deal was approved unanimously by independent CI directors on a board committee. The company’s previously announced dividends will be paid, but future dividends will be suspended.
Mubadala Capital is a unit of United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth manager Mubadala Investment Co.
