BMO Financial Group today announced that it has signed an agreement in principle to purchase bcpbank Canada, a full-service chartered bank which is wholly owned by BCP Internacional II, Sociedade Unipessoal, SGPS, Lda, a wholly owned subsidiary of Millennium bcp of Lisbon, Portugal, for $41 million. bcpbank Canada had a net book value of $26.7 million as at December 31, 2005. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close later this year.
bcpbank Canada operates a network of eight personal and commercial bank branches, seven of which are located in the Greater Toronto Area. With a customer base of 28,000 bcpbank Canada has established a reputation for being the first choice for financial services amongst Toronto's extensive Portuguese-Canadian community and is a leader in providing international remittance services for that community.
bcpbank Canada employs more than 120 people and many of its front-line employees are proficient in the Portuguese language and are able to assist customers in their language of choice.
“This acquisition reflects our commitment to continue to invest in our core Canadian retail banking franchise and provides us with a good opportunity to deepen our relationship with this important local community,” stated Frank Techar, President and CEO, Personal and Commercial Banking Canada, BMO Financial Group.
“We now look forward to working even more closely with the Portuguese-Canadian community,” added Techar. “Not only will we be able to bring a broader range of financial products and services to the customers of bcpbank Canada, but this acquisition gives us an additional entr�e into one of the biggest business opportunities – providing multicultural financial services for multi-generational Canadians.”
“This acquisition will provide the same level of service that bcpbank customers have received along the years, while bringing a greater selection of financial products and a much larger and convenient branch network,” stated Ricardo Valadares, President and CEO of bcpbank Canada. “We trust this acquisition will be of great benefit and satisfaction to all our customers given that both institutions share the customer-first spirit and a strong commitment to the Portuguese-Canadian Community. Consequently, bcpbank is pleased to announce that one of its most demanded services – Remittances to Portugal - will be maintained and available to all bcpbank Customers in the future,” concluded Valadares.
About BMO Financial Group
Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of more than $312 billion as at April 30, 2006, and more than 34,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions. BMO Financial Group serves clients across Canada through its Canadian retail arm, BMO Bank of Montreal and through its wealth management firms BMO Nesbitt Burns, BMO InvestorLine and BMO Harris Private Banking. BMO Capital Markets, our North American investment and corporate banking division, provides a full suite of financial products and services to our North American and international clients. In the United States, BMO serves clients through Chicago-based Harris, an integrated financial services organization that provides more than one million personal and business clients with banking, lending, investing, financial planning, trust administration, portfolio management, family office and wealth transfer services.
About bcpbank
bcpbank Canada is an ethnic community bank, headquartered in Toronto, currently operating a network of 8 branches. bcpbank provides comprehensive banking services and solutions to its customer base, servicing individual and corporate customers through a combination of personal banking and business banking products and services. bcpbank is wholly-owned by the Millennium bcp Group, a successful international financial group with resources available worldwide.
About Millennium bcp
Millennium bcp Group is the leading financial group in Portugal and one of the top 100 in Europe listed on the Euronext Lisbon Stock Exchange. Millennium bcp, is a leading global financial services group with more than $107 CAD billion in assets and 19,700 employees worldwide with banking presences in Portugal, USA, Canada, Poland, Greece, Mozambique, Angola and Turkey.
The Bank's major activities include individual and corporate customer banking, credit, custody of securities, treasury services, foreign-exchange transactions and money-market operations. In the pursuit of its business, the Bank has conceived and developed various autonomous commercial networks providing an overall service directed at the specific needs of every type of customer: the Individuals & Businesses Network, the Corporate Wholesale Network, the Corporate Retail Network and Private Banking.
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