A subsidiary of Toronto-Dominion Bank has agreed to buy Jack White & Co., a San Diego discount broker, for approximately $100 million.
The deal by Toronto-Dominion's Waterhouse Investor Services Inc., announced Tuesday, would bring $15 billion of client assets to Waterhouse, giving it over $50 billion in 1.25 million accounts in the United States.
Jack White also boasts a mutual fund supermarket that offers access to 2,600 no-load funds. "Jack White will allow us to introduce Waterhouse to a whole new range of customers," said John G. See, president and chief operating officer of Green Line Investor Services, the bank's Canadian brokerage unit. "Waterhouse has had less of an emphasis on this (mutual funds) and more on equities."
Waterhouse and Jack White have been talking about doing a deal for several months, said Duncan Gibson, vice chairman for wealth management of TDBank Financial Group, Toronto. He said he was not aware of any competing offers.
Pending regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in June. Jack White will operate as a division of Waterhouse. The company's founder and chief executive, Jack K. White, will be chairman of the division.
Mr. White could not be reached for comment.
The purchase adds to the expansion of Toronto-Dominion in the United States, where it acquired another California discount broker, Kennedy, Cabot & Co., for $155 million in November. Kennedy brought Waterhouse about $8 billion of assets in client accounts.
Toronto-Dominion bought Waterhouse, a White Plains, N.Y., discount brokerage, about one year ago.
Mr. Gibson said Waterhouse has expanded on its own but the acquisition of Jack White would provide "an opportunity to accelerate the growth. "Jack White is high-quality firm and very well respected," he added.
