Ross McDonald | Banker | Strategist | CFO

Canadian SMEs

Canada is home to one million small businesses. Two-third plan to sell their business in the next ten years. But more than half have no succession plan in place. The 'baby boomers' want to retire ...

Fairness Opinions

A fairness opinion is a letter prepared by a corporate finance firm that states whether the financial terms in a transaction are fair. Independence is critical for fairness opinions. This requires an advisor to be mandated on a fixed-fee, rather than deal-contingent, basis ...

M&A in Canada

The following article appears in the July 2008 publication of the Association of Corporate Growth's Mergers & Acquisitions Journal, a glossy bi-monthly publication with international corporate finance distribution. Free download of magazine per link, article on pages 60 to 62.
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TRENDS IN CANADIAN M&A

In economic terms, popular folklore is that ‘when the US sneezes then Canadians catch a cold’. Over recent years, M&A in Canada has boomed. Both volumes and values of M&A transactions have breached record levels. But US economic conditions have materially changed. This article highlights six Canadian M&A trends, identifies their economic drivers and considers their impact for the future.

Barclays & ABN Amro merger

Today Barclays (British retail bank and capital markets firm) and ABN Amro (Dutch bancassurance leader and mid-market corporate bank) announced a merger.  The combined entity will be the fourth largest global retail & commercial bank (after Citigroup, HSBC and Bank of America) with approximately 2% market share.  And the eighth largest global investment manager.

Characteristics of combined business ...

Citigroup buys Egg, a UK online bank

In January 2007, Citigroup purchased Egg - a UK online bank - from Prudential plc for £575 million ($1.1 billion). Why?

Expressing personal views, I can see four clear reasons.
(a) Egg operates in a growth market ... (b) in which Citigroup has proven expertise
(c) Egg resolves a Citigroup retail distribution weakness ... (d) at an opportunistic price