CI Financial has revealed plans to sell up to 20% of its $133bn US wealth management business through an initial public offering (IPO) in the country.

The Canadian asset manager, which expanded its wealth business to the US in 2020, has been aggressively expanding its footprint via M&A deals.

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CI Private Wealth, the US wealth management division of the firm, will have approximately $133bn assets, once all outstanding acquisitions are completed.

CI plans to file a prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) later this year for the IPO.

Details about IPO size, conditions and timing are yet to be finalised, the firm said in a statement.

The firm, which will retain the majority interest in the business, said it will leverage the net proceeds from the stock market debt to pay down debt.

Speaking about the development, CI CEO Kurt MacAlpine said that the US wealth unit ‘now has sufficient scale to stand alone as a public company’.

He added: “After a thorough evaluation of our strategic options, we are confident that a US-listed subsidiary IPO is the best route to shareholder value creation.

“We believe this is the best path to realising our vision of becoming the leading ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth business in the US.”

CI follows a private partnership model, under which the owners and employees of the registered investment advisers (RIA) are given equity in the broader CI Private Wealth business in the US.

In 2021, the firm added 15 RIAs to the division.

This month CI signed a deal to buy some assets of Eaton Vance WaterOak Advisors from Morgan Stanley.

The firm is planning to continue its acquisition streak and further expand its business, according to a Bloomberg News report citing MacAlpine.

According to MacAlpine, the pace of the deals may slow down compared to last year, when several business owners were seeking to transact ahead of pending tax changes.