Toronto To Overtake London As A Hub For Bankers

[oceanmdx]

Maybe they count most of Toronto's immigrants as tourists who got lost and can't find there way out?

[oceanmdx]

The Bank of NS has agreed to sell its head office building in Toronto for $1.266 billion to two REITS.

[ShinyTower]

Yeah its a record.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...rticle2440355/

[oceanmdx]

I beat The G&M to the story by about 1/2 hour... that's a record too.

At that high a price, perhaps it will encourage more office towers?

[Taller, Better]

And Bental 5 in Vancouver went for a cool 400 million a little while back. Office space is at a premium, I suppose.


I remember when the first Bentals went up and we were so shocked that the owner made his buildings "no smoking"!!
Seemed so incredible at the time!

[large]

This should encourage a super-tall or two. You don't need a massive anchor tenant. There are enough wealthy law firms, accountants and boutique financial service firms who want high profile offices to take a few floors each for speculative supertalls to be built. Just need a pension fund or a REIT to grow a set and we're away.

[Skybean]

World's Best Paid Investment Banks 2012


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...new-deals.html

- New leader JPM, finally beat GS
- RBC has caught up to HSBC. Cracked top 10.

[Taller, Better]

Well done, RBC!

[Skybean]

Bloomberg's list of the world's strongest banks in 2013

Canada Falls

Some of Canada’s banks also fell, as the industry was hit by ratings downgrades and hurt by a slowing economy and an increasingly risky housing sector. An exception was Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), or Scotiabank, which moved up to No. 7 from No. 18.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...ada-slips.html

List: http://media.bloomberg.com/bb/avfile/rxfIKJLQ7yMA

[LEAFS FANATIC]

Nice to see all those Canadian banks in the top 10 (and a couple in the top 20)!

It just goes to show that fiscal conservatism works.

[Taller, Better]

It really is impressive, isn't it?

[LEAFS FANATIC]

I must say I was surprised.....pleasantly surprised, that is!

[isaidso]

4 Canadian banks in the top 8. One can't ask for much more than that. Bank of Montreal is conspicuously absent from the top 20. Maybe it's their recent M&I purchase in the US midwest dragging things down?

[ladyscraper]

Do the Canadian banks have some sort of agreement amongst each other to cut up the US into sections and buy up banks and expand? TD seems to mostly buy banks in the northeast for example.
It seems like they want to take over as much of the US banking market as possible but also want to avoid competing with each other as they do it.

[rbt]

Originally Posted by ladyscraper

Do the Canadian banks have some sort of agreement amongst each other to cut up the US into sections and buy up banks and expand?

No. It's mostly accidental.

They will want to buy a bank where they can bring something unique to the potential customer base. Since all Canadian banks work the same way, BMO will generally not want to buy in an area where TD is already established as they'll find it harder to get customers.

Once they have a profitable base in some states, you will find they begin to creep into other areas and overlap through expansion.

[Epi]

Hmm and to think... I bank with BMO

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by ladyscraper

Do the Canadian banks have some sort of agreement amongst each other to cut up the US into sections and buy up banks and expand? TD seems to mostly buy banks in the northeast for example.
It seems like they want to take over as much of the US banking market as possible but also want to avoid competing with each other as they do it.

Besides what rbt said, good acquisition opportunities only come up once in a while. The probability of 2 coming up in the exact same area are less likely. That said, RBC and TD did have considerable overlap before RBC pulled out.

Perhaps RBC will try again in a few years. The US west coast would be a good region to look if they want to avoid Canadian competition. Let's not forget that Scotiabank and CIBC don't have a US retail presence to speak of either. It's only Bank of Montreal and Toronto-Dominion.

I'd rather see Scotiabank continue to acquire in latin America and Asia though. Maybe CIBC will see the wisdom in that. They need to venture beyond Canada again, but I read they're targeting wealth management.