Canadian PR firm National Public Relations has bought Canadian investor relations firm Equicom from TMX Group, the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), as National seeks to strengthen its position in the country’s financial communication sector.
National has also obtained a multi-year referral agreement from TMX as part of the deal, though financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
‘The combination of National and Equicom delivers the strongest team of capital markets and strategic and integrated communications capability in the market,’ says Ronald Alepian, the former chief communications officer of New York-based software company CA Technologies, who will head the newly named National Equicom. ‘National and Equicom can now support the financial, reputational and strategic goals of clients in an unprecedented way.’
Equicom, which was founded in 1996, has a client base of more than 120 companies in the US and Canada, ranging from micro-cap to large-cap issuers on the TSX, the TSX Venture Exchange, NASDAQ, the NYSE, AMEX, the Australian Securities Exchange and London’s Alternative Investment Market, the company says on its website. The Toronto-based company, which has offices in Calgary and San Diego, offers roadshow services, M&A communications, financial media relations, annual report development, web development and web management to support its IR activities.
National says Equicom’s leadership and client teams will remain in place, as the ‘success of existing client programs and priorities was a central consideration in the structuring of the transaction and combination.’
The sale by TMX comes as the firm aims to shed divisions that are not core to its business running the TSX. In an interview with the Financial Post in December shortly after taking over as CEO of TMX, Lou Eccleston said he would spend the first half of 2015 deciding which businesses to divest and which to build.
