CIX ACQUIRES WISDOMTREE'S CANADIAN ETF BUSINESS CI Financial Corp. and WisdomTree Investments Inc. of New York have entered into an agreement under which CI will purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of WisdomTree Asset Management Canada Inc., the investment fund manager of WisdomTree's Canadian exchange-traded funds.
Upon completion of the transaction, CI will add 14 Toronto Stock Exchange-listed ETFs with $958 million in assets (as of November 4, 2019) to its current ETF family. The WisdomTree Canada ETFs will be rebranded CI WisdomTree ETFs and WisdomTree will continue as the index provider for the WisdomTree Canada ETFs that currently track WisdomTree's proprietary indexes.
"As Canadians increasingly adopt the ETF structure, the addition of WisdomTree's Canadian operations will expand our lineup of mandates and increase the scale of our ETF business, which is critically important in providing investors with efficient, effective investment choices," said CI Chief Executive Officer Kurt MacAlpine.
"Notably, this acquisition gives us additional investment management capabilities through WisdomTree's fundamentally weighted approach to indexing, which will be a strong complement to the CI First Asset ETF lineup.
"We will be maintaining the existing lineup of WisdomTree ETFs with no changes to their current investment objectives and strategies," said Mr. MacAlpine. "The CI WisdomTree funds will represent a distinct offering within our overall ETF business."
CI will have ETF assets under management of approximately $8.9 billion following the acquisition, based on asset levels as of November 4, 2019. CI's ETF business has grown rapidly since it acquired First Asset Investment Management in November 2015 with $3 billion in assets.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approval, including approval of unitholders of the WisdomTree Canada ETFs. Consideration for the transaction will range from $7 million to $13 million in cash, depending on the achievement of certain assets under management growth targets over the next three years. Five million dollars will be paid upfront, subject to purchase price adjustments at closing.