Weinberg back on acquisition trail

After a seven-year hiatus from the acquisition trail, Marty Weinberg is back with a vengeance. The former CEO of Assante Corp. has finalized a deal to acquire Brockhouse Cooper, an investment consulting and securities trading firm based in Montreal.

The company, which has operations in 50 countries and advises on more than $300 billion in assets under advisement, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Winnipeg-based Pavilion Investment House, of which Weinberg is CEO.

“This is only the beginning. This is the first step of many to grow Pavilion into a global financial services firm,” he says. “By joining forces, we’ll be in a better position to advance our strategic plan through the sharing of our experience and talent.”

The purchase price for the deal, which closed last Friday, was not announced.

Brockhouse Cooper operates two businesses. It’s consulting side works with pension plan sponsors to help them select managers for their assets. It has a database of more than 4,400 mandates, which include Canadian and U.S. small-, mid- and large-cap strategies.

The securities trading arm, meanwhile, trades stocks and bonds for institutional clients in 50 countries around the world.

“The plan sponsors we work with are among the largest in Canada. Some are publicly-traded companies, others are cities, universities and foundations,” says Howard Messias, president and chief financial officer of Brockhouse Cooper. “A plan would contact us when they’re looking to hire or fire an investment manager.”

Weinberg hasn’t publicized the size of Pavilion or any of the companies in its stable, including private-equity firm Canterbury Park Capital and Harrow Partners Private Counsel, a high net-worth investment counsellor. He says the addition of Brockhouse Cooper increases Pavilion “by multiples.”

Weinberg built his reputation as a deal maker from the mid ’90s until the early 2000s when he orchestrated the acquisition of more than 16 investment distributors and manufacturers in Canada. He then branched off into the sports and entertainment market in the U.S.

Weinberg has been largely out of the limelight since selling Assante’s Canadian business to CI Fund Management for $846 million in 2003. At the time, it had 1,200 financial advisors overseeing $7 billion in assets under management and $17 billion in assets under administration.

Despite the increased geographical footprint presented by Brockhouse Cooper, Weinberg said he will continue to man the controls from Winnipeg. That’s partly what attracted Messias, who says the company pursued a deal with Pavilion because they saw some significant similarities between the values and people at both firms.

“We found a cultural fit that made sense for us. We were looking to move to the next stage of growth and they were looking to re-enter the financial services arena,” he says.

“We did our due diligence and considered other opportunities. We found somebody we could work with and would support our desires to grow our business and look at opportunities in Europe and Asia.”

Brockhouse Cooper, which has 60 people in its Montreal office, also has an office in South Africa. It’s a mirror image of its Canadian company, but it’s smaller with 20 employees.

(04/29/10)