RBC to acquire J.P. Morgan's Third Party Registered Investment
Advisor Servicing Business
Move expands RBC Wealth Management's Advisor Services Platform
NEW YORK and MINNEAPOLIS, September 29, 2009 — Royal
Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) and New York-based J.P.
Morgan today announced the signing of a definitive agreement
pursuant to which RBC will acquire J.P. Morgan's Third Party
Registered Investment Advisor ("RIA") Servicing
Business ("IAS").
Details of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition
is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing
conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter
of 2010.
When the transaction is complete, IAS will be renamed and
become part of RBC Advisor Services, which is a unit of RBC
Wealth Management's U.S. division. RBC Advisor Services specializes
in providing custody and clearing services to high performing
third party RIAs.
"Growing and enhancing RBC Advisor Services is a strategic
priority for our firm, and this acquisition represents an
important step in our quest to become the finest investment
advisory and wealth management firm in the U.S.," said
John Taft, head of RBC Wealth Management, U.S. Division. "Across
our multiple business channels, we are focused on serving
the high-net-worth segment of the marketplace and IAS shares
that focus for RIAs."
"The acquisition of IAS will expand the breadth and
depth of our offering to highly successful third party RIAs,
and will enhance our competitive position in the high end
of the RIA custody marketplace," said Mike Kavanagh,
chief administrative officer & head, Independent Business
Channels at RBC Wealth Management. "The employees and
clients of IAS represent a terrific strategic and cultural
fit with our firm."
"RBC has the global resources to provide our IAS employees
and third party RIAs with world-class tools and solutions,"
said Chris Nastopoulos, national sales manager at IAS. "Additionally,
the strength and stability of RBC will continue to provide
clients with comfort and security in addition to the high
level of service that they expect and deserve. We're excited
to continue growing our business as RBC Advisor Services."
The acquisition of IAS marks the latest step in RBC Wealth
Management's ongoing expansion in the U.S. The firm has recruited
more than 300 financial consultants this fiscal year, by far
the most consultants the firm has ever recruited in a single
year.
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 approximately 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 53 other countries. For more
information, please visit rbc.com.
About RBC Wealth Management
RBC Wealth Management directly serves affluent and high net
worth clients in Canada, the United States, Latin America,
Europe and Asia with a full suite of investment, trust and
other wealth management solutions. The business also provides
asset management products and services directly and through
RBC and third-party distributors to institutional and individual
clients through its RBC Global Asset Management division,
and has more than C$490 billion of assets under administration,
nearly C$240 billion of assets under management and more than
4,500 financial consultants, advisors, private bankers and
trust officers.
The RBC Wealth Management division of Capital Markets Corporation
operates in the United States via more than 200 locations
in 43 states. Founded in 1909, RBC Capital Markets Corporation
is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the Financial
Industry Regulatory Authority and other major securities exchanges,
as well as the Securities Investor Protection Corp.
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Media Contacts:
RBC
Kevin Foster, RBC, (212) 428-6902
Stephanie Lu, RBC, (416) 974-5506
Jonell Rusinko, RBC, (612) 371-2239
Investor Contacts:
James Colburn, RBC, Investor Relations, (416) 955-7808
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 harbour"
provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995 and in any applicable Canadian securities
legislation. Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) intends that such
forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbour
created thereby.
These forward-looking statements are provided to give additional
information about the acquisition and include, but are not
limited to, statements with respect to the acquisition of
J.P. Morgan's Third Party Registered Investment Advisor Servicing
Business (IAS) by RBC, and may not be appropriate for other
purposes. Forward-looking statements are typically identified
by words such as "believe", "expect",
"forecast", "anticipate", "intend",
"estimate", "goal", "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 or conclusions
and other forward-looking information, including statements
about the acquisition of IAS by RBC, will not prove to be
accurate, or that our assumptions may not be correct. 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 the proposed transaction
does not close when expected or at all because required regulatory
or other approvals are not received or other conditions to
the closing are not satisfied on a timely basis or at all;
that JP Morgan and RBC may be required to modify the terms
and conditions of the proposed transaction to achieve regulatory
approval, or that the anticipated benefits of the transaction
are not realized as a result of such things market environment
impacts, including the impact of the volatility in the financial
markets and potential lack of liquidity in certain credit
markets; general business and economic conditions, including
recessionary conditions; competitive factors in the areas
where IAS does business; the impact of changes in the laws
and regulations, including tax laws, regulating financial
services and enforcement thereof (including banking, insurance
and securities); judicial judgments and legal proceedings;
RBC's ability to complete the acquisition of IAS and to integrate
it with RBC successfully; reputational risks, and other factors
that may affect future results of RBC and IAS, including changes
in trade policies, and the timely development and introduction
of new products and services. We caution that the foregoing
list of important factors is not exhaustive. Additional information
about these and other factors can be found in RBC's 2008 Annual
Report and Q3 2009 Report to Shareholders.
Except as required by law, RBC assumes no obligation to update
the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
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