Charlie spiring, ceo of Wellington West Capital Inc., didn’t have to look far to find a role model for U.S. expansion.

He simply followed the well-beaten path blazed by fellow Winnipegger Marty Weinberg, when Assante Corp. began building its business south of the border in the late 1990s.

Wellington West has just made its first foray into the world’s biggest market, signing a letter of intent to purchase 50% of One Capital Management LLC, a Los Angeles-based discretionary management investment-counselling firm with US$450 million in assets under management. Wellington West has an option to buy the remainder of One Capital.
But whether the Winnipeg-based investment dealer does or not, it still plans to be busy in the U.S.

“Early in the new year, you’ll start to see some acquisitions, both small counsellors and big brokers, come under our umbrella,” Spiring says. “The opportunity in California is as big as the opportunity in Canada. Now we have our beachhead in California, it’s a great start.”

Spiring has had preliminary conversations with executives of potential targets in Denver and New York, as well.

Wellington West has also been active on the domestic side, acquiring another discretionary manager, Barlow Capital. Victoria-based Barlow has a book of business of
almost $100 million.

Brad Simpson, formerly with Royal Bank of Canada, has been hired to co-ordinate the efforts of the two additions, which together will be renamed Wellington West Asset Management Ltd. and headquartered in Victoria. Spiring says the new division will better enable its investment advisors to serve their snowbird clients and others who move to the U.S.

When the deals close, which is expected to take place Nov. 15, Wellington West will have AUM of more than $7 billion, further solidifying its status as one of the biggest independent dealers in Canada.

Dan Richards, president of Strategic Imperatives Ltd. , a Toronto-based consulting firm to the financial services industry, applauds the One Capital move and says an increasing number of time-pressed investors are looking for discretionary managers to handle their finances.

Although discretionary management doesn’t typically have higher margins than traditional brokerage businesses, Richards says, it does position firms to attract larger and more affluent clients.

One Capital specializes in serving clients with more than US$1 million in investible assets, and it can cover 14 asset classes in a single portfolio.

The Winnipeg influence is strong at One Capital because Don McDonald, One Capital’s president, was part of the team leading Assante’s U.S. assault.

As well, says Patrick Bowen, director of global asset allocation at One Capital, McDonald and Spiring go back almost 20 years and their previous business relationship in Winnipeg was a significant factor in the transaction.

“Don is from Canada and he knows [the market], so that made it somewhat easier for us,” says Bowen. “We wanted to know which advisors will be using us as a money manager and, ultimately, have their clients’ money managed by us. We wanted nothing but the best of the best.”

Following Weinberg

Spiring has no qualms about following the lead of Weinberg. After a number of high-profile acquisitions in the sports and entertainment fields, Assante was eventually sold to CI Fund Management Inc. in August 2003 for $846 million.

“Marty has guided me in a lot of the things he did right and wrong,” Spiring says. “There’s definitely an Assante flavour [to our plan], and the last time I looked, it was a pretty successful flavour.”

Wellington West has also pulled the trigger on a few key personnel decisions. In late October, it removed the word “interim” from John Rothwell’s title of president. The former executive vice president at Fidelity Investments Canada Inc. joined the company in 2004 in the same capacity. Based in Toronto, he assumed Wellington West’s interim presidency this summer, when Kevin Kelly resigned as president and co-CEO.

In early November, Wellington West also announced that Jennifer Jones, skip of the reigning Manitoba and Canadian curling champions, has joined the firm as in-house counsel after seven years at Winnipeg-based Aikins MacAulay & Thorvaldson.

Spiring says the growing complexity of Wellington West, especially after the One Capital addition, made these moves necessary. “You want to make sure you dot the Is and cross the Ts, and the people who are best at that are lawyers,” he says.

@page_break@Jones will probably work three- or four-day weeks during the winter to accommodate her curling schedule.

In addition to handling corporate commercial work at the firm, Jones will undoubtedly add some star power, Spiring says.

“She’ll give us brand recognition in the world. Hopefully, she’ll win a gold medal soon,” he says, referring to the upcoming 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. To wear the Maple Leaf, Jones first has to qualify at the Canadian Olympic trials, which are being held in early December in Halifax.

Jones says the opportunity to move to Wellington West and start its legal department was too great to resist.

“It’s very exciting,” she says. “This seemed like a wonderful opportunity for me and something that I was interested in. It’s a really good fit.” IE