Alberta’s ATB Financial buys investment bank Cormark Securities

ATB Financial is buying independent investment dealer Cormark Securities Inc. in an effort to compete more directly with Canada’s largest capital markets players, as consolidation in the sector continues.

The Alberta government-owned financial institution announced the deal early Monday, one month after The Globe and Mail first reported ATB and Cormark were discussing a sale.

Buying Cormark represents a significant expansion of ATB’s capital markets business, which has long focused on raising money for Alberta-based oil and gas companies.

Toronto-based Cormark, which is owned by its roughly 100 employees, works across a range of industries and offers a full suite of investment banking services such as stock trading, sales and analysis.

Cormark led nine stock sales worth a combined $270-million during the first six months of this year, according to LSEG Data & Analytics, accounting for 2.5 per cent of the domestic underwriting market.

Alberta’s ATB Financial in talks to buy investment bank Cormark Securities

Over the past decade, Cormark has participated in more than 1,000 stock sales that have collectively raised more than $100-billion.

ATB already maintains an office in Toronto’s financial district, but according to ATB chief executive officer Curtis Stange, part of the strategic rationale for buying Cormark was to establish a larger beachhead on Bay Street.

“Is Cormark being located in Toronto an important element of this acquisition? The answer to that is yes,” Mr. Stange said in an interview.

“Cormark Securities allows us to expand in Toronto, which is an important market for us. We have a national presence that happens to be predominantly focused on Western Canada and Cormark allows us to become a leading Canadian independent investment bank.”

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, though The Globe previously reported the deal would be worth at least $35-million. Mr. Stange declined to comment specifically on the price ATB paid for Cormark.

“We came to an agreement with them that was favourable to both organizations,” he said. “Cormark is financially strong and will be accretive to ATB.”

Cormark was beset by a recent string of high-profile departures, including former CEO Chris Shaw, former head of investment banking Alfred Avanessy and former senior mining banker Kevin Carter.

Mr. Stange said Cormark has a “very strong” mining team. As for those who have left Cormark, he said “we wish those members the best in their new roles and the decisions that they’ve made.”

“This is a highly competitive industry and people will pay for top talent,” he said. “We are very confident in our culture and very confident in the excitement in the team at Cormark to join ATB.”

Cormark CEO Susan Streeter will join ATB Capital Markets as head of strategy and growth. Scott Lamacraft, Cormark’s executive chair and single largest shareholder, will become executive chair at ATB Capital Markets.

ATB has been rapidly expanding its capital markets business through acquisitions, starting in 2020 when it bought Calgary-based investment bank AltaCorp Capital following the death of its founder, George Gosbee. AltaCorp was subsequently rebranded as ATB Capital Markets.

In 2024, ATB bought Winnipeg-based fund manager BCV Asset Management Inc., which at the time held $5.8-billion in assets under management. Mr. Stange declined to comment on whether ATB is currently in talks with any other acquisition candidates, though he suggested the company remains open to further deals.

“We will stay in the market and it is important to always be looking for what that next acquisition could be,” he said. “We want to make sure that we are very focused on delivering on the value proposition of the acquisition we are announcing today. This is primary for us.”

While buying Cormark allows ATB to add mining to its existing strengths in energy and life sciences, Mr. Stange said expanding into other more diversified sectors such as industrials or telecommunications “is something that we are quite excited about.”

“We have a high bar of making sure we have the right level of capability, competence and the right products to offer any sector that we enter into,” he said.

“Any approach that we have to declaring a focus on a certain sector will be done quite methodically and pragmatically,” Mr. Stange said.

Cormark was founded in 1981 as Sprott Securities by Eric Sprott, who left the company in 2000 to focus on his eponymous money manager, Sprott Inc. Sprott Securities was rebranded as Cormark in 2007.

The sale to ATB marks the latest development in a years-long trend of independent Canadian investment banks being acquired by larger rivals.

That trend arguably began as long ago as 2000, when Toronto-Dominion Bank bought Newcrest Capital Inc., though it has accelerated in recent years with GMP Capital Inc. buying FirstEnergy Capital for almost $100-million in 2016. GMP was then sold to Stifel Financial for about $70-million in 2019.

In 2023, a merger of mid-sized independent investment banks PI Financial and Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. created what is now known as Ventum Financial Corp.