‘All about growth’: ATB Financial acquires BCV Asset Management

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This article was published 27/11/2024 (622 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ATB Financial — the large, full-service regional bank owned by the Alberta government — has acquired Winnipeg-based BCV Asset Management.

Started 18 years ago by Tony Demarin, BCV has grown steadily, with a track record of solid performance for its clients and a national network of financial planners that refer business. It has roughly $6 billion of assets under administration.

Its acquisition by ATB is seen as a testament to BCV’s excellent performance over its history.

ATB CEO Curtis Stange said the company has made a conscious effort to grow its wealth management business, opening offices in B.C. and Saskatchewan in the last couple of years.

“As part of that strategy, we had been looking at the potential to acquire organizations in Western Canada and that has led us to the acquisition of BCV,” Stange said.

The Winnipeg firm will continue to operate as a standalone business under the BCV brand. It will not become another office of ATB Wealth Management.

Demarin and all 60 staffers at BCV are staying on, adding the Winnipeg office will expand.

“This is all about growth and not about a liquidity event for our shareholders,” Demarin said. “No one is going to relocate to Alberta. We will be adding staff, adding clients, now with the assistance of a very large financial institution.”

Terms and conditions of the deal, which closed this week, were not disclosed.

Demarin said the company’s south Winnipeg headquarters is in the process of developing an additional 6,000 square feet of space and he expects to hire an additional 15 people within the next year.

Part of the reason for the growth expectations is BCV may have the chance to manage more money on behalf of ATB, Demarin said.

“ATB Financial’s assets under administration reached $29.9 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, showing their ability to build a strong portfolio and be a strong partner to BCV,” Demarin said. “One of the reasons we wanted to partner with a firm like ATB was to give our organization more growth opportunities than we could have had on our own over the next 10 years.”

Both Stange and Demarin said corporate cultures are aligned, making the combination attractive to both.

With $62.3 billion in assets, ATB Financial has more than 5,000 employees and nearly 820,000 clients across personal and business banking, ATB Wealth Management and ATB Capital Markets businesses.

After the recently announced acquisition of Canadian Western Bank by National Bank of Canada, ATB is now the largest full-service regional bank in Canada and the only one headquartered in Western Canada.

It has a network of about 300 retail banking branches in Alberta — the only province where it provides retail banking services. In addition to ATB Wealth Management offices in B.C. and Saskatchewan, its capital markets division has offices in Toronto, Calgary and Denver.

“We are very committed to Western Canada and our headquarters in Alberta and that’s important to us as an organization as we grow and expand,” said Stange.

BCV has experienced great growth, starting zero 18 years ago.

“The capital markets have been great and we’ve had a strong track record of investment returns and an on-going growth trajectory,” Demarin said. “That $6 billion in assets could turn into $10 billion in the next five years.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca