Bank of Montreal Stock In Focus After $465M Burgundy Asset Deal, Retail’s Split

The Bank of Montreal (BMO) has agreed to buy Burgundy Asset Management for C$625 million ($465 million) to bolster its wealth management portfolio.

The deal will “strengthen BMO's offering in the Canadian Investment Counsel space, catering to high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients,” the two companies said on Wednesday.

Burgundy has 150 employees serving clients from offices in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. The company has assets under management worth $27 billion as of May 31, 2025.

After the deal’s close, expected at the end of the calendar year, Burgundy will operate as part of BMO Wealth Management, and CEO Robert Sankey will continue to lead the business.

“In our view, the purchase price of 2.3% of assets under management represents reasonable value to expand BMO’s high-net-worth client base,” John Aiken, equity analyst with Jefferies Financial Group, said, according to Bloomberg.

BMO will pay about the purchase price in common shares, including a C$125 million holdback to be paid subject to Burgundy maintaining certain assets under management 18 months post-closing.

The lender’s wealth-management unit had about 6,400 employees and C$438 billion under management as of April 30, according to the Bloomberg report. The unit has experienced a surge in activity over the past few months, driven by increased asset inflows.

According to Burgundy’s website, more than half of the company’s institutional client business is in Canada, while 37% is in the U.S.

Desjardins Securities analyst Doug Young reportedly said that the purchase price was “in line with similar past transactions,” and the deal is a sensible addition in BMO’s plan to reach 15% return on equity in the medium term.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits was in the ‘neutral’ (48/100) territory, while retail chatter was ‘low.’

BMO’s U.S. shares have gained 9.3% this year.

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