PI Financial Corp. has acquired client accounts from Wolverton Securities and Global Securities Corp. and will also employ those companies’ investment advisors once the transaction closes, the companies announced March 21.
The news comes on the heels of significant consolidation and shrinkage in the brokerage sector .
Vancouver’s Salman Partners’ closed its investment banking and wealth-management operations on February 15
Its end as a brokerage followed Toronto’s GMP Capital slashing about a quarter of its workforce in January and Toronto’s Octagon Capital falling into bankruptcy in December.
Acquisitions such as Quebec-based Industrial Alliance Securities Inc.’s purchase of Ontario’s Burgeonvest Bick Securities Ltd. in November further illustrate that the brokerage sector countrywide is shrinking.
“The combination of these three independent Vancouver-based dealers, all with long histories of success, builds upon our national platform and our Western Canadian footprint,” said PI Financial’s CEO Max Meier.
Wolverton Securities Ltd.’s chairman Brent Wolverton added that shifting markets forced the company to adapt and that the best solution was to embark on a strategic partnership.
“I feel this is the best way to fulfill our ambitions to accelerate growth, attract top advisors and continue to offer our clients unique investment options.”
Global Securities Corp. chairman Art Smolensky hinted to Business in Vancouver in February that a merger was likely looming.
“Realistically, we will have to be part of a larger entity to cut costs,” he told BIV at the time.
Smolensky’s 130-employee firm has seven compliance officers who ensure that brokers operate ethically. Were the firm to double in size, it would still need only seven compliance officers, Smolensky said to explain the necessity of consolidation.
After the transactions, PI will have more than 300 employees, 200 advisors and 40,000 clients across Canada, including more than 35 advisors registered as portfolio managers or derivatives portfolio managers.
Both Smolensky and Wolverton will join PI as senior officers.
For an in-depth look at consolidation in the local brokerage sector, click here .
