So far, the Toronto-listed firm has made a total of 14 deals, acquiring or buying significant stakes in US wealth management firms across the country.

CI Financial, the Canada-based group that bought a number of US wealth management firms in recent months, has reported earnings per share of C$0.50 ($0.39) for the fourth quarter of 2020, falling from C$0.62 in the previous quarter and $0.66 in the same quarter a year ago.

Adjusted earnings per share for the fourth quarter were C$0.71. This compares with adjusted earnings per share of C$0.62 for the third quarter of 2020 and C$0.66 for the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted earnings exclude a provision of C$42.6 million (C$55.8 million before tax) in the fourth quarter of 2020 for non-recurring items, including legal and restructuring charges, investment write-downs and losses from the early redemption of bonds.

As reported in January, CI Financial acquired Segall Bryant & Hamill, a wealth management house based in Chicago. The deal continues a raft of deals that CI Financial has inked in the past 12 months. To date, the business has made 14 deals.

“In 2020, we made great progress in executing on our strategic priorities of modernizing asset management, expanding wealth management, and globalizing the firm. While we are still in the early stages of executing our strategy, CI is a fundamentally different company than it was just a year ago,” Kurt MacAlpine, CI chief executive, said. 

“We have almost doubled the size of our wealth management business, reaching C$96 billion at the end of the year, and quickly built a significant presence in the United States. Our assets in the US alone are nearing C$60 billion with the completion of five acquisitions in the fourth quarter and an agreement this January to acquire Segall Bryant & Hamill, LLC of Chicago. The US wealth management firms we acquired operate at strong margins and generated aggregate organic net new asset growth of 9 per cent in 2020.”

“We have diversified our investor base by listing on the New York Stock Exchange in November and issuing debt in the United States in December,” MacAlpine said. “With the re-opening of that offering in January, we have issued US$960 million in notes, demonstrating a high level of investor interest and confidence in CI and our strategy. While CI had no US debt just two months ago, today over 50 per cent of our bonds are issued in the US.”

At December 31, 2020, total assets under management were C$135.1 billion, representing an increase of 5 per cent from September 30, 2020 and 3 per cent from December 31, 2019.

Total wealth management assets as at December 31, 2020 were C$96.5 billion, an all-time year-end high for CI and an increase of C$30.4 billion or 46 per cent over September 30, 2020 and a rise of C$46.0 billion year over year.