Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY) has completed the C$2.4bn (£1.6bn) acquisition of UK discretionary wealth manager Brewin Dolphin Holdings PLC (LON:BRW), sealing a £66mln windfall for the City firm's employees.
Its 2,000 employees held a combined total of 4.13% shares via an employee ownership trust, meaning each employee is banking an average of around £33,000 from the completion of the takeover.
Canada's largest lender agreed the deal in March, at 515p per share.
The business, which will now operate as RBC Brewin Dolphin, will continue to be led by chief executive Robin Beer.
Beer, finance director Siobhan Boylan and executive director Charlie Ferry owned just over 1mln shares, based on last year’s annual report, worth £6mln between them at the takeover price.
RBC Brewin Dolphin will have £58bn of assets under management as of end-August when combined with RBC Wealth Management, which is a market leader in Canada and is growing in the United States.
With the addition of more than 30 regional offices and over 2,000 employees, RBC group head of wealth management and insurance, Doug Guzman, said it was a transformative acquisition for both sides, creating one of the largest wealth managers in the UK, Channel Islands and Ireland.
He said it also provided future growth opportunities in “an attractive and consolidating market".
Beer said the combination was also “signaling our intention to further enhance our client proposition”.
The listing of Brewin shares on the London Stock Exchange were suspended from before trading began on Tuesday and delisting is expected to take place on Wednesday.