Manulife, Bank of Montreal Said to be Eyeing U.S. Acquisitions

Manulife Financial and Bank of Montreal are both well positioned to bid for U.S. financial service firms, The Toronto Star reports, citing reports from analysts this week.

Certainly, Canadian firms are at an advantage because of the strong Canadian dollar, said Andre-Philippe Hardy  of RBC Capital Markets. Manulife alone has $3 billion in excess capital, he said.

As to which U.S. firms Manulife might be interested in, Hardy believes Lincoln National and Principal Financial are good targets because they “have the best product mix for Manulife.”

Shannon Cowherd of Citi Investment Research, believes Bank of Montreal may be considering acquiring TCF Financial.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.