North Square affiliate CS McKee to add around $2.3B AUM from new acquisition

CS McKee, a majority-owned affiliate of North Square Investments, will see its assets under management grow through a new acquisition.

Foundry Partners, a firm founded in 2012 with headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio and offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will be acquired through CS McKee and will be merged into the firm.

"Foundry Partners has an outstanding reputation as a high-quality equity investment manager with continuity and experience, which greatly complements North Square's existing business and will be accretive to CS McKee's respective goals for growth" said Mark Goodwin, Co-Founder and CEO of North Square. The acquisition is expected to add more than $2.3 billion to CS McKee's assets under management.”

Mergers and acquisitions were a hot topic at InvestmentNews Activate California earlier this month with Sandra Cho, founder and president of Pointwealth Capital Management likening the process to dating.

The North Square/CS McKee deal was announced by Foundry Partners’ president and CEO Timothy Ford who started in investment industry career at CS McKee and will now return to the firm as part of its senior management team.

"As we become part of CS McKee, we are thrilled to be maintaining continuity for our clients, with no changes to our investment processes or the skilled and experienced team of Foundry investment professionals who have built our distinguished track record and contributed to the success of our firm," Ford said.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025 subject to the usual conditions. It will be North Square’s third transaction announced or closed in 2024.

North Square was founded by industry veterans in 2019 and had $1.9 billion AUM in 11 mutual funds and one closed end fund as of September 30, 2024. With its ownership interests in CS McKee (majority) and Oak Ridge Investments (minority), collective assets under management and advisement totaled $12.7 billion.