Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. has agreed to buy Sawaya Partners, a consumer-focused U.S. mergers-and-acquisitions firm, to expand its dealmaking capabilities outside Canada.
Sawaya founder and managing partner Fuad Sawaya will become global head of Canaccord’s consumer investment-banking practice, according to a statement from Canaccord, which is based in Vancouver but run from Toronto. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Canaccord is looking to build on its existing consumer practice, and with Sawaya is adding a firm that has advised clients including Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Jack Link’s. Canaccord said in a separate memo that its U.S. capital-markets business has completed over 500 transactions since an expansion in 2019.
“This development underscores our commitment to expanding our advisory capability while going deeper into our core capital markets strengths, allowing us to do more for our targeted client base,” Chief Executive Officer Dan Daviau and Jeff Barlow, Canaccord’s U.S. president, said in a memo.
Sawaya partners Jeff Kuhr and Slava Leykind will become co-heads of the U.S. consumer investment-banking group, and all existing employees of Sawaya Partners will continue with Canaccord’s U.S. capital-markets business, Canaccord said.
The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the month, according to the memo.
