Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the country's fifth-biggest bank, is boosting the target size for wealth-management takeovers to more than C$1 billion ($951 million) as it seeks to increase profit from the business.
"As we have worked through the universe of potential acquisitions, it becomes clear that choices improve as we expand the size of the universe under consideration," Chief Executive Officer Gerald McCaughey, 57, said today during a conference sponsored by Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto.
Canadian Imperial plans to expand its wealth-management business through internal growth and takeovers so the unit accounts for 15 percent of earnings, McCaughey said. It currently generates 11 percent of profit, he said.
CIBC agreed in April to buy Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management from Invesco Ltd. for $210 million, a deal that followed its August 2011 purchase of a 41 percent stake in American Century Investments for $848 million.
Those takeovers provided "a good range" for the size of transactions the Toronto-based lender was seeking, McCaughey said in an April 25 interview.
"We are now open to considering acquisitions in excess of C$1 billion that would accelerate how fast we get to 15 percent of wealth that is part of bank earnings," McCaughey said today.
