RBC to buy Brewin Dolphin in £1.6bn deal

Royal Bank of Canada is buying UK wealth manager Brewin Dolphin in a £1.6bn agreed deal.

The bank is paying 515p a share, a 62% premium to Wednesday’s closing price. RBC added that it expected “limited” job losses in “functional and administrative areas”.

RBC said it was "strategically focused" on evaluating opportunities to grow its wealth management operations in its core markets of Canada, the US and Europe.

"The acquisition of Brewin Dolphin represents an exciting strategic opportunity for RBC to combine RBC WMI, its existing wealth business in the UK and the Channel Islands, with Brewin Dolphin to create a market leader with, on a pro-forma basis, £64bn of assets under management (and) a combined annual revenue of £545m for FY 2021," RBC said on Thursday.