Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) said Wednesday it plans to raise $1.5 billion in an offering of common shares that the bank said will be used to pay for recent acquisitions.
The bank said it has signed a deal with a syndicate of underwriters to sell 30 million shares at $50.25 per share.
The underwriters have also been granted an option for up to an additional three million shares that could increase the size of the deal to $1.66 billion.
Earlier this month, Scotiabank closed its acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in Banco Colpatria in Colombia for US$500 million in cash and 10 million Scotiabank shares.
Scotiabank announced a deal last year to buy nearly 20 per cent of China’s Bank of Guangzhou in a deal worth about $719 million.
The bank said Wednesday that the common share offering, the sale of the Scotia Centre office building in Calgary, the Banco Colpatria transaction and other moves will raise its Tier 1 capital.
As a result, the bank said it is confident that its Basel III common equity Tier 1 capital ratio — a level required under new global banking standards — will exceed seven per cent in the first quarter of 2013.
Scotiabank is Canada’s most international bank with customers in more than 55 countries around the world. It has a major presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.