TD had been looking to acquire a U.S. asset manager to build its North American wealth business, Mike Pedersen, group head of wealth management, insurance and corporate shared services for TD, said Thursday in a news release. The deal "makes strategic sense for TD. It will broaden our offer for institutional and retail clients in Canada and will immediately and significantly strengthen our U.S. wealth business," he said.
Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and its subsidiaries are collectively known as TD Bank Group.
Founded in 2004, Epoch is based in New York and has 65 employees. Their asset-management team has an average of more than 20 years of investment management experience, TD said.
At TD's annual meeting this year, Chief Executive Ed Clark pledged to open more than 50 branches in New York City over the next four years. TD has made a number of U.S. deals in recent years, including the acquisition of Chrysler Financial from Cerberus Capital Management last year for $6.3 billion.
Under the agreement announced Thursday, Epoch shareholders would receive $28 per share, representing a premium of roughly 28% to Epoch's closing price on Wednesday, TD said.
TD expects to add roughly $24 billion in assets under management at closing to the $207 billion already under management by TD Asset Management. Following the completion of the deal, Epoch would continue to operate and serve clients under its current brand name and operating structure.
Members of Epoch's management team and board, who currently hold about 28% of the company's outstanding shares, have agreed to vote in favor of the deal.
