170 Sheppard Avenue East in Toronto, where a Wealth One Bank office is located. Under the proposal led by Globalive, all of Wealth One’s current investors would divest their shares and the ownership of the bank would move into a special purpose vehicleChristopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
Globalive Capital Inc.’s proposed takeover of Wealth One Bank of Canada has gotten the green light from the Competition Bureau, clearing the first of several regulatory hurdles.
The deal, which would see Globalive and a consortium of other investors acquire a majority stake in the bank for $51-million, still requires the approval of two federal regulators: the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the federal Minister of Finance.
Under the proposal led by Globalive, all of Wealth One’s current investors would divest their shares and the ownership of the bank would move into a special purpose vehicle, a legal entity that allows multiple investors to pool their capital and make an investment in a single company. Globalive would be responsible for governance over the SPV, while other investors would be limited partners with only an economic interest in the bank.
The investor consortium includes high-net-worth families in Canada, Britain and the U.S. with experience investing in the financial sector, The Globe and Mail previously reported.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in 2022 ordered three of the bank’s founding investors – Toronto insurance executive Shenglin Xian, Vancouver property developer Morris Chen and Toronto grocery tycoon Yuansheng Ou Yang – to divest their shares and imposed national-security conditions on the bank.
A representative of Wealth One Bank said the company does not comment on active regulatory proceedings. Globalive’s founder and chairman Anthony Lacavera declined to comment.
Wealth One, a Schedule 1 bank that caters to Chinese-Canadian clients, was established in 2016 with an initial investment of $50-million.
It had more than $500-million in assets at the end of September, more than half of which are uninsured residential mortgage loans, according to the most recent balance-sheet information posted online by OSFI.