Barclays will function as financial adviser to Bank of Montreal on its acquisition of UK asset manager F&C. The UK bank was named as a financial adviser alongside the Canadian lender’s investment banking arm, BMO Capital Markets, in a stock exchange announcement. Bank of Montreal will acquire F&C Asset Management in a deal which values the asset manager at approximately £708 million. F&C said the price represented a 30.5% premium to its closing share price of 93.5p on 24 January. Barclays has been increasing its share of financial institutions group advisory, after making a push into the business after its acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ North American assets in 2008. The bank was ranked sixth last year in the global financial M&A league tables, up from 18th in 2007, according to Dealogic.
