Bank of Montreal (BMO) is expanding its wealth management capability in China by acquiring part of the trust arm of one of the country’s largest state-owned enterprises.
Date: Feb 24, 2012
Bank of Montreal (BMO) is expanding its wealth management capability in China by acquiring part of the trust arm of one of the country’s largest state-owned enterprises.
BMO announced that it has bought a 19.99% interest in COFCO Trust Co, a subsidiary of COFCO Group, the maximum permitted for a foreign investor.
COFCO Trust Co was founded in 2009, and had assets under management of RMB36 billion (US$5.7billion) as of 31 December, 2011.
The cooperation leverages BMO’s North American wealth management and capital markets experience to help COFCO Trust develop its wealth management offering, said Gills Ouellette, president and chief executive officer of BMO Financial Group's private client group and chairman of BMO ChinaCo.
Further, COFCO Trust provides BMO with a wider variety of wealth management products directly or through third parties.
"Since regulatory changes were instituted in 2007, trust companies have become an increasingly important provider of wealth management products in China," said Albert Yu, managing director and head of Asia, BMO Financial Group.
The deal is still subject to the approval from the regulators in China and Canada.
