On November 30, 2022, Guardian Capital Group Limited (Guardian) (TSX: GCG) (TSX: GCG.A) and Desjardins Group (Desjardins) announced that they have entered into definitive agreements for Desjardins to acquire Guardian's life insurance, mutual fund and investment distribution networks. Specifically, Desjardins will acquire:
- IDC Worldsource Insurance Network Inc. (IDC), one of the largest life insurance managing general agencies (MGA) in Canada;
- Worldsource Financial Management Inc. (WFM), a mutual fund dealer; and
- Worldsource Securities Inc. (WSI), a full-service investment dealer.
- IDC, WFM and WSI serve more than 5,000 independent advisors in the Canadian insurance and financial advice markets.
BLG represented Guardian with a team led by Julie Mansi (Securities) and Carlos Cerquiera (M&A) and included Andrew McLean, Walter Chen, Alex Wang, Sean Muggah, Fabio Colias, Eni Azisllari and Yemisi Afolabi. Specialist support was provided by Michael Taylor (Securities Regulatory); Steve Suarez (Tax); Robert Weir and James Fu (Labour & Employment and Benefits); Donna Spagnolo (Insurance); Denes Rothschild (Competition); and Tamila Ivanov (Commercial Real Estate).