BMO's metals and mining business is the second-largest revenue generator for the bank's investment and corporate banking unit.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Bank of Montreal BMO-T has purchased an Australia-based capital markets business as the lender expands its metals and mining investment banking unit.
The Canadian bank struck an all-cash deal to acquire the capital markets unit of Euroz Hartleys Group Ltd. for 145-million Australian dollars ($142-million). The Perth-based company is a metals and mining-focused equity capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic advisory firm.
Australia is a major hub for the financing of the metals and mining sector, a complex and capital-intensive industry that has boomed in recent years. The race to power new technology in artificial intelligence, defence and electric vehicles is driving demand for critical minerals.
“We’re in a mining super cycle, and it’s been going on for a number of years,” said Carrie Cook, BMO global head of investment and corporate banking, in an interview.
BMO believes that cycle is not “going to slow down any time soon, which is a big reason we’re excited to have gotten this acquisition done and close the loop on what was one of the areas in the world that we wanted to really bolster our presence,” she said.
BMO’s metals and mining business has grown significantly, and the bank sees it as a template for how it could improve in other areas.
Since 2018, revenue more than tripled in the franchise, BMO head of capital markets Alan Tannenbaum said during an investor presentation in March. The mining and metals business is the second-largest revenue generator in BMO’s investment and corporate banking unit, contributing 15 per cent of the division’s total revenue in 2025.
The metals and mining unit posts an average return on equity – a closely watched measure of profitability – of more than 30 per cent among clients with six or more products.
BMO has advised on major deals in recent years, including Teck Resources Ltd.’s pending sale to British mining giant Anglo American PLC.
Mr. Tannenbaum has said the metals and mining business offers a blueprint for BMO’s ambition to improve its bank-wide profitability. In 2024, BMO set a goal of improving its return on equity across the bank to 15 per cent by the end of 2027.
BMO has operated in Australia since 2004 from its office in Melbourne. In the decade that followed, most of the market activity happened on exchanges in North America. That has started to shift in recent years as activity picks up on the Australian Securities Exchange, or ASX.
The bank’s metals and mining unit also operates in Toronto, Vancouver, New York City, London and Beijing.
“Australia is going to help us round that out,” Ms. Cook said. “We want to be able to serve all pockets of capital. We’ve seen a shift back into Australia, and the ASX becoming more relevant – we need to take advantage of that.”
After the deal closes, BMO expects about 40 employees from Euroz Hartleys to join its capital markets division.
Euroz Hartleys offers private wealth, institutional broking and corporate finance services. It expects to post revenue of as much as 142-million Australian dollars and group net profit of as much as 16-million Australian dollars for the 2026 fiscal year, the company said in a statement.
The Australian firm’s private wealth business – which provides investment advice and financial planning services to high-net-worth clients – will enter into a strategic agreement with BMO while remaining independent.
The transaction is expected to close later this year, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.