Origin Merchant Partners is accelerating its U.S. expansion plan.
The Toronto-based investment bank, which specializes in advising on mergers and acquisitions, is buying Boston-based Consensus Consumer, which helps brands such as Nine West, Timex Group and Toys “R” Us conduct M&A deals. Marking Origin’s third acquisition since 2022, the transaction will result in the Canadian company generating most of its business from south of the border.
“Our business has been moving increasingly into the U.S.,” Jim Osler, Origin’s co-chair, said in an interview. “It was about 40-per-cent U.S. business at the beginning of this year. With this deal, we will be easily majority U.S. business going forward.”
Origin first expanded to the U.S. in 2022 with the purchase of Chicago-based InterOcean Advisors and it entered the Boston market in 2023 by hiring veteran tech banker Horacio Facca. At the time, the company had roughly 40 bankers spread across five cities.
Once the Consensus deal closes, Mr. Osler said the company’s total headcount should hit 80 bankers. Consensus founder Mike O’Hara will become chair of Origin’s U.S. business, the company said in a statement, in order to lead a broader expansion of its American operations.
Origin and Consensus have worked together in the past, most recently last month when insurance conglomerate Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. agreed to pay $579-million for Canadian winemaker Andrew Peller Ltd. The two companies also collaborated on the 2025 sale of a controlling interest in Spence Diamonds to Calgary-based private equity firm TriWest Capital Partners.
“Both companies have pretty sizeable pipelines and for Consensus to convert their pipeline they just need more horsepower, so we bring that,” Mr. Osler said.
Despite plummeting M&A activity in corporate Canada as trade uncertainty and fallout from the Iran war have created a challenging environment for both buyers and sellers, Mr. Osler said both Origin and Consensus had a record start to 2026 with revenue on track to double on a year-over-year basis.
“If you told me there was going to be trade tensions, a trade war, big tariff issues, I would say that none of that is going to be great for an M&A practice,” he said. “But the volume of activity is going up tremendously.”
Origin’s industrials practice in Chicago, Mr. Osler said, has been having a “terrific” year largely because of the tariff-related uncertainty.
“Because of the trade tensions there is a premium on U.S. manufacturing assets right now,” he said. “There is a lot of interest in it.”