CI Financial sees slowdown in M&A as it eyes US IPO

The Canadian firm expects to file the registration for an initial public offering of a portion of its US wealth management business during the fourth quarter.

CI Financial, a leading buyer of wealth management firms, said Thursday that during the second quarter, it closed the previously announced acquisitions of two U.S. registered investment advisers: Corient Capital Partners of Newport Beach, California, which has $5 billion in client assets and a focus on ultra-high-net-worth clients, and Galapagos Partners of Houston, a multifamily office with $868 million in client assets.

That’s a slowdown from the breakneck pace at which CI Financial had been buying RIAs and wealth management firms in the past.

Kurt MacAlpine, CEO of CI Financial, the Canadian wealth management firm, told investors in May that 2022 was shaping up to be a slower year for RIA acquisitions and that the rate of the firm’s acquisitions last year was unusual.

Meanwhile, in its second-quarter earnings report released Thursday, CI Financial reiterated its intention to sell up to 20% of its U.S. wealth management business via a U.S. initial public offering. CI Financial first made its intentions for a U.S. wealth management IPO public in April.

The company intends to file the registration for the IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission during the fourth quarter, MacAlpine said Thursday morning during a conference call with analysts to discuss second-quarter earnings.

The company said that it intends to use the net proceeds from the IPO to pay down debt, and that a final decision on the IPO size, conditions and timing is pending and will be subject to market conditions.

At the end of June, CI Financial reported $112.6 billion of U.S. wealth management assets, an increase of 71% when compared to the end of June 2021, when it reported $65.8 billion.