CIBC eyes U.S. growth as deal for lender closes
TORONTO The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is pushing ahead with its ambitions in the United States now that it has completed its $5-billion acquisition of Chicago-based PrivateBancorp Inc., focusing first on organic growth but leaving the door open to “geographic regional expansion in logical places” and potential “tuck-in acquisitions as they appear.”
CIBC’s largest acquisition to date closed Friday — after two sweetened bids — giving Canada’s fifth-biggest lender some much-coveted exposure to growth south of the border as the economy at home slows.
As CIBC integrates itself with PrivateBancorp, a commercial and private bank with a national presence but a large footprint in the Chicago area, the U.S. region will operate under a unified CIBC brand, the companies said.
“The predominant focus is organic growth,” CIBC chief executive Victor Dodig said in a phone interview from Chicago. “It doesn’t mean that we won’t look at tuck-in acquisitions as they appear. Those would likely be in the wealth management space.
“And growing banking inorganically, that’s something that would happen over the medium to long term.”
Larry Richman, chief executive of PrivateBancorp, who will take on the role of group head of the U.S. region, said its focus is “marketshare growth.”
However, there may be opportunity in areas where PrivateBancorp, which operates as PrivateBank, and CIBC’s Atlantic Trust franchise, a U.S. private-wealth manager for high-net-worth clients purchased in 2014, overlap, Richman added.
“It may and likely will include some geographic regional expansion in logical places where we can leverage the client-base capabilities,” Richman said from Chicago.
Acquiring PrivateBancorp was “foundational” for CIBC and a key part of its long-term strategy, Dodig said.