Canadian wealth manager RBC Wealth Management has received the regulatory green light for its £1.6bn acquisition of Financial Planning firm Brewin Dolphin.
The Canadian regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, gave regulatory approval yesterday.
The deal was subject to approval from regulators and competition law approvals from regulators in the UK, Ireland, Jersey and Canada, including the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
The approval from the Canadian regulator was the final approval holding up the completion of the deal.
RBC launched a recommended bid to acquire Brewin Dolphin for £1.6bn at the end of March.
In May Brewin Dolphin shareholders approved the Scheme of Arrangement at a court meeting and passed a special resolution at a general shareholders meeting.
Completion of the acquisition is on track to complete by the end of autumn this year.
RBC made a recommended cash offer for the entire issued share capital of Brewin Dolphin for 515 pence per share.
The price offered implies a value for Brewin Dolphin of £1.6bn.
If the deal goes ahead the two businesses will be combined creating a UK wealth manager expected to be the third biggest in the market.
Brewin Dolphin is one of the major providers of discretionary wealth management in the UK and Ireland. It has more than 30 offices and Assets under Management of £59bn.
Royal Bank of Canada has a global footprint in the wealth management sector and has 88,000 employees worldwide. It is one of Canada’s biggest bank and one of the largest banks in the world based on market capitalisation. It has 17 million clients in Canada, the USA and 27 other countries.
Brewin Dolphin is a UK FTSE 250 company. Services include discretionary investment management, retirement planning and tax-efficient investing. Its intermediary business manages £19 billion of assets for over 1,700 advice firms either on a discretionary basis or via its Managed Portfolio Service.
