Continuing its aggressive expansion, the American Stock Transfer & Trust Company (AST) has expanded its operations into Canada by announcing the acquisition of CIBC’s issuer services business. In addition, AST has taken a significant step into the proxy solicitation and annual meeting space through the purchase of Phoenix Advisory Partners.
‘AST is really broadening its products and services to our clients and the wider market space,’ explains Mark Healy, CEO at AST. ‘We are expanding the addressable market and the service capabilities we can offer. We have created a proxy solicitation business with the appointment of Tom Kies, and now the addition of Phoenix, which deepens our relationship coverage and helps focus the solicitation effort but also brings in the important functions of corporate governance and advisory. These are very strong products we can offer clients and prospects.
‘We are excited about the CIBC deal and the opportunity to come together with it in the Canadian market space. It presents the opportunity to extend the same type of strategy we have been pursuing in the US where we can add more products to the shelf, bring a deeper relationship to the customers and also open up a much more competitive market.
‘The new structure will allow us to continue to grow service to a more diverse and wider range of customers both in Canada and the US. It really is a very integrated strategy across both countries, creating what we feel is a very strong, out-of-the-box, North American offering that will benefit clients of both companies.’
The CIBC transaction is scheduled to officially close in early October, at which time the new business with be called Canadian Stock Transfer. As is the case with AST, the new company will be part of the Link Group network of companies, a global provider of transfer agent, employee plan corporate actions and proxy services.
‘The employee stock plan area is one where we can bring a particularly strong offering and make significant change to the marketplace offering,’ explains Healy.
Phoenix is headed by CEO John Siemann, a former partner at Laurel Hill Advisory Group. He is joined by Tom Cronin and Jon Einsidler, while Glenn Keeling will lead the Canadian proxy operations.
‘We have come to feel the market has developed in such a way that expanding the role of the solicitor beyond the traditional shareholder meeting window into a year-round consulting and advisory services company is the way to go, and we are very excited about joining up with a company like AST that has the ability and appetite to grow in our particular area but is also focused on developing the full suite of services that is often talked about but rarely delivered,’ says Siemann.
Orient Capital, another member of the Link Group and sister company to AST, has also hired David Chase Lopes, former director of European operations at Georgeson, as director of governance advisory and M&A services for Europe.
In addition, AST has moved into the post-merger clean-up business through the formation of Link Shareholder Services, a wholly owned subsidiary.
