CI Financial was founded in 1965 as Universal Savings Fund Management Ltd. It was a small private firm until 1994, when it held an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange as C.I. Fund Management. In the next 9 years, it increased in size by 10 times. In 1999, Bill Holland became CEO of the company, a position that he was to hold for more than 10 years. Also in 1999, the company acquired BPI Financial Corp. for $206 million, creating Canada's fifth-largest public mutual fund company. in 2003, CI purchased the Canadian operations of financial firm Assante Corp. for $846 million. As a result of this acquisition, and two others at the same time, CI became the second largest fund management company in Canada. In 2005, CI changed its name to CI Financial, to reflect the diversity of its activities. In 2007, it acquired Rockwater Capital for $250 million. This deal allowed CI to expand into the investment banking business. In 2008, Sun Life Financial sold its 37% ownership in CI to Scotiabank for $2.3 billion. Scotiabank made the purchase to strengthen its relatively weak wealth management business. Sun Life had held the stake until before 2003. In 2010, CI acquired Hartford Investments's Canadian operations. In 2014, Scotiabank sold most of its stake in CI, in part due to conflicts with the management of the company. In 2015, CI acquired First Asset Capital Corp., allowing it to expand into offering exchange-traded funds. In 2017, CI acquired Sentry Investments for $780 million. The deal was intended to lower costs through consolidation. Also in 2017, CI acquired BBS Securities Inc., parent company of online brokerageVirtual Brokers, due to its investment in Fintech. In late 2019, CI announced a deal to acquire the Canadian arm of US exchange-traded fund powerhouse WisdomTree Investments Inc. CI will maintain the lineup of Wisdomtree ETFs with no changes to their current investment objectives or strategies. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approval.
Divisions
CI Investments: The main division of CI, offering mutual funds and other investment products to mainly retail investors.
In 2004, the Ontario Securities Commission approved settlement agreements with CI Investments and three other fund companies. As part of the settlement, CI Investments agreed to make a payment of $49.3 million to investors in its mutual funds that were affected by market timing trades carried out by third party investors in certain mutual funds managed by CI Investments. In 2016, CI reached a no-contest settlement with the OSC to pay $156 million to 360,000 investors in its mutual funds. The settlement was due to CI Investments miscalculating the net asset value of certain funds, by not properly accounting for interest earned from 2009 to 2015. CI Investments also paid an $8 million voluntary payment to the commission. This settlement agreement resulted in the largest amount of compensation paid to investors pursuant to a no-contest settlement agreement in Ontario.
