Fiera Capital Corp. is acquiring Foresters Life Insurance Co.’s asset management business in an effort to beef up its offering for institutional clients, according to Jean-Philippe Lemay, Fiera’s president and chief operating officer.
Montreal-based Fiera will buy Foresters Asset Management Inc., Foresters’ Toronto-based investment management subsidiary that’s focused on institutional and insurance liability-driven investment. The terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, weren’t disclosed.
As of April 30, Foresters Asset Management had $10.5 billion in assets under management. “That positions us to about $25 billion in the LDI segment, the institutional space in Canada, which is putting us in a very strong leadership position,” said Lemay in an interview.
The LDI segment is becoming a larger focus as institutional investors look to manage liabilities and achieve their funding objectives, he said.
Fiera will also become the manager of Foresters Asset Management’s six Imaxx mutual funds, which offer a mix of Canadian and global bond, dividend and equity growth funds. As well, Foresters’ fixed income team will go to Fiera, noted Lemay, and the firm is currently in discussions with the equity team.
The purchase follows a series of recent acquisitions to bolster Fiera’s private alternatives business, including Toronto-based Integrated Asset Management, Hong Kong-based Clearwater Capital Partners and London, U.K.-based Palmer Capital Partners.
The $10.5 billion in new assets from Foresters is mostly in public fixed income, said Lemay, “but all the insurance clients underneath are looking to expand in the multi-asset space and [are] increasing their allocation to private alternative strategies.”
Fiera’s previous acquisitions will help it build relationships with the new clients from Foresters, he said. Looking ahead, the firm will continue to “globalize our offering” on private alternatives, he added.
“We’re probably going to continue to look at some niche firms to be able to expand on that and round up our offering on that side.”
Foresters said the sale is aligned with its strategy to focus on its core life insurance business. Last month, the firm announced the sale of its U.S. asset management business to Macquarie Investment Management.