The move by the Toronto-listed bank into private hands (in this case, of funds run by a Middle East sovereign wealth fund), was one of the largest such shifts in recent years. CI Financial has been a large acquirer of US wealth managers, such as RIAs.

CI Financial, the Canada-based bank that bought a raft of RIAs and other wealth manager firms in recent years, said it expects its go-private move to be wrapped up on or around August 12.

An affiliate of funds managed by Mubadala Capital, an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund, is buying CI Financial in one of the most important de-listing moves by a North American bank in recent years. 

As reported previously, CI’s go-private deal is for C$4.7 billion, giving the group a C$12.1 billion ($8.8 billion) enterprise value. CI has said it will continue to operate with its current structure and management team and be independent of Mubadala Capital’s other portfolio businesses.

CI’s purchase of a raft of US wealth management businesses – starting in 2020 – has been one of the stand-out stories within North American M&A. Separately, CI’s US wealth management business, now known as Corient, has continued to buy firms. On January 22 this year, it acquired Geller’s multi-family office business, Geller MFO. That deal was also one of the largest that Corient executed. (The Corient rebrand happened in August 2023.)