CC&L selling structured products business

The terms of the deal involve Aston Hill purchasing 80% of CC&L CM from CC&L Financial, Neil Murdoch, president and CEO of CC&L CM, and Darren Cabral, CFO. Following the transaction, Murdoch and Cabral will hold the remaining 20% of the company not owned by Aston Hill.

“Aston Hill has made a significant investment in the development of its retail business which includes a presence in both open ended and closed end investment products” said Warren Stoddart, managing partner and co-CEO CC&L Financial, in a release.

“We believe the interests of CC&L CM’s clients will be well supported by the continuity of the management team and the depth of Aston Hill’s resources that are available to the business.”

The business being acquired by Aston Hill includes management or advisory agreements related to 14 TSX listed closed end investment products with a market value of $1.25 billion.

Excluded from the sale is the CC&L Core Income and Growth Fund (approximately $90 million in assets), management of which will be assigned to Connor, Clark & Lunn Funds Inc., an affiliate within the CC&L Financial.

CC&L Financial said the decision to sell its interest in this business, representing less than 3% of its business-wide assets under management, recognizes that the investment management sub-advisory function for most of CC&L CM’s products is performed by investment teams that are not affiliated with CC&L Financial.

Going forward, CC&L Financial will focus on the development and distribution of in-house managed products and will redeploy the proceeds from this transaction in support of its private markets business consisting of commercial real estate, private equity and infrastructure and renewable energy.

The company said it has no intention to dispose of any other business interests.