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RBC acquires full ownership of CDI
TORONTO, March 2, 2009 — Royal Bank of Canada
(RY on TSX and NYSE) today announced that RBC Capital Markets
has acquired full ownership of Commission Direct Inc. (CDI),
one of Canada's largest independent providers of independent
commission-compensated investment services (IC-CIS) for Canadian
institutional investors. Prior to this transaction, RBC had
a 50 per cent ownership interest in CDI. Terms of the transaction
were not disclosed.
IC-CIS brokerage companies such as CDI facilitate the payment
of qualified independent research and brokerage obligations,
commission sharing arrangements (CSA), commission recapture,
transition restructures, and discount trading. The transaction
gives CDI the ability to continue to offer professional investors
unbiased access to qualified investment decision-making and
trading services and plan administrators the ability to save
money.
"CDI has a long track record of independent, high-quality
agency execution, serving the growing needs of Canadian institutional
clients," said John Reilly, head of Canadian Equity Trading,
RBC Capital Markets. "We look forward to CDI continuing
to develop and distribute innovative new products and services
for the Canadian institutional marketplace."
"This transaction will allow us to provide an enhanced
range of services to our client investors, backed by the financial
strength and stability of RBC" said Wayne McAlpine, chief
executive officer, CDI. "During our 17-year partnership,
RBC has supported and believed in our independent approach,
and our commitment to the highest standards of trade execution,
administrative excellence and diligent compliance with soft
dollar practices."
About CDI
CDI was founded in 1992 to facilitate the payment of IC-CIS
needs of Canadian institutional investors as well as to assist
independent research providers targeting professional money
managers in Canada. The company is a member of the Investment
Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Toronto Stock
Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and the Canadian Investor Protection
Fund.
About RBC Capital Markets
RBC Capital Markets is the corporate and investment banking
arm of RBC and is active globally in debt and equity origination,
merger and acquisitions activity, sales and trading, foreign
exchange, infrastructure finance, structured products, metals
and mining, and energy. Its North American platform includes
a significant U.S. middle market investment banking franchise
and leading equity, underwriting, sales, trading and research
businesses. Bloomberg ranks the firm as the 12th largest investment
bank globally.
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) and its subsidiaries
operate under the master brand name RBC. We are Canada's largest
bank as measured by assets and market capitalization, one
of North America's leading diversified financial services
companies and among the largest banks in the world, as measured
by market capitalization. We provide personal and commercial
banking, wealth management services, insurance, corporate
and investment banking and transaction processing services
on a global basis. We employ more than 80,000 full- and part-time
employees who serve more than 18 million personal, business,
public sector and institutional clients through offices in
Canada, the U.S. and 52 other countries. For more information,
please visit www.rbc.com.
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For more information, please contact:
Stephanie Lu, RBC, Head of Media Relations
416-974-5506, stephanie.lu@rbc.com
Investor Relations
Josie Merenda, RBC, Director of Investor Relations
416-955-7809, josie.merenda@rbc.com
For general investor relations information please visit:
www.rbc.com/investorrelations.
CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements contained in this press release may be
deemed to be forward-looking statements under certain securities
laws, including the "safe harbor" provisions of
the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995 and in any applicable Canadian securities legislation
and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) intends that such forward-looking
statements be subject to the safe-harbour created thereby.
These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited
to statements with respect to the acquisition of CDI by RBC
Capital Markets. Forward-looking statements are typically
identified by words such as "believe", "expect",
"forecast", "anticipate", "intend",
"estimate", "plan" and "project"
and similar expressions of future or conditional verbs such
as "will", "may", "should",
"could", or "would".
By their very nature, forward-looking statements require
us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and
uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our
predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations and other
forward-looking information, including statements about the
acquisition of (CDI) by RBC Capital Markets will not be achieved.
We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements
as a number of important factors could cause our actual results
to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such
forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are
not limited to the possibility that that the anticipated benefits
of the transaction are not realized as a result of such things
as the strength of the economy and competitive factors in
the areas where CDI does business; the impact of changes in
the laws and regulations regulating financial services and
enforcement thereof (including banking, insurance and securities);
judicial judgments and legal proceedings; RBC Capital Markets
ability to integrate CDI with RBC Capital Markets successfully;
reputational risks, and other factors that may affect future
results of RBC and CDI, including timely development and introduction
of new products and services, changes in tax laws, and technological
and regulatory changes. We caution that the foregoing list
of important factors is not exhaustive. Additional information
about these and other factors can be found in the Royal Bank
of Canada 2008 Annual Report.
Except as required by law, RBC Capital Markets, RBC and CDI
assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements
contained in this press release.
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