CIBC sees 17% of earnings coming from U.S. businesses by 2020

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said it expects earnings contributions from its U.S. businesses to almost double to 17 percent in the next three years as the lender integrates its acquisition of Chicago-based PrivateBancorp.

"Our goal is to diversify outside of Canada," Chief Executive Officer Victor Dodig said Wednesday at the firm's investor day in Toronto. "With our investment in PrivateBank we have a significant opportunity to grow in the United States," especially in business banking, he added.

Pedestrians are reflected in signage on the exterior of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce headquarters building in Toronto.

Dodig, acknowledging that CIBC is "too Canadian-focused," said this year's $5 billion PrivateBancorp deal will also allow the Toronto-based lender to expand its wealth-management and capital markets businesses to U.S. clients. CIBC collected 9 percent of its earnings from the U.S. in 2017, up from 6 percent two years ago.

CIBC said it expects profit contributions from Canadian personal and small-business banking to shrink to 45 percent by 2020 from the current 48 percent, while domestic commercial banking and wealth will be little changed at 25 percent. The lender sees Canadian capital markets representing 13 percent of overall earnings by 2020, compared with 19 percent this year.

Dodid also said CIBC is considering a U.S. stock listing for FirstCaribbean International Bank, in which it owns about a 92 percent stake. He said the business is performing well "despite weathering some incredible natural hardships particularly over the last little while."

He said a share listing would be a way "of tapping into the deepest capital pool," adding that the company is already publicly listed on some stock exchanges and has minority shareholders.

CIBC FirstCaribbean had net income of $142 million in fiscal 2017 and a market value of about $2 billion, according to its annual report.

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