BNS focuses on branches

Article Excerpt

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $76.40 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $92.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.9%, www.scotiabank.com) is the thirdlargest of Canada’s five big banks. The bank is selling its HollisWealth business to Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. (Toronto symbol IAG). HollisWealth sells wealth management services to over 400,000 clients through 800 advisors across Canada. The selling price for that business will depend on the value of its assets under administration at the time the deal is completed. That will probably be in the third quarter of 2017. Today, those assets are worth $34 billion. To put that in context, Bank of Nova Scotia’s own assets under administration total over $473 billion. The sale is part of the bank’s plan to sell wealth management services through its branches, instead of independent advisors. This will lower costs, but more importantly, it will let the branches better promote added services such as trust and estate planning, and…