Merchant Banking Group

Based in Toronto, the Merchant Banking Group manages both the direct and fund investment activities of CIBC.

Direct Investments

Since 1989, the investment team's responsive, flexible and creative approach to investing has resulted in value creation for both our partners and investee companies.

Investment Type:
As a traditional merchant bank, we have the ability to offer creative, flexible and value-added capital solutions. Our investments include private equity, structured equity, mezzanine and bridge debt, depending upon the nature of the situation.

Situation:
We generally invest in private or public companies to finance internal growth, acquisitions, management/leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations. In certain cases, our investment represents transitional capital providing an investee company with short-term financing for a specific purpose or to provide short-term liquidity.

Level of Control:
We typically seek minority or joint-control transactions with a financial partner or management team.

Investment Horizon:
We have significant flexibility with respect to investment horizon. Depending on the needs of our partners and the nature of the investment, we generally target an investment horizon of 3 to 5 years. For transitional capital investments, such as bridge financings, a horizon of up to 24 months is typical.

Industry Focus:
We have the ability and expertise to deploy capital in virtually any industry. We are able to leverage CIBC's deep institutional knowledge base and resources to quickly become educated on a particular industry.

Geography:
We tend to focus on the Canadian market. This can include Canadian companies doing business in Canada and/or abroad as well as non-Canadian companies expanding their operations into Canada.

Stage of the Company:
Investments are typically made in later stage, cash flow-positive businesses. We also assist fundamentally strong companies undergoing a financial restructuring or requiring short-term liquidity.

Target Investment Size:
Will vary depending upon the situation, however, in general we can deploy up to $20 million with the potential for a higher amount for transitional capital investments such as bridge financings.

Management-Friendly:
As financial investors, we rely on management for the day-to-day operations and participate, as required, in the strategic development of the investee company. This participation is often through board representation and/or through maintaining a strong relationship with management and other financial partners.

Value-add Partner:
We are able to leverage the broad experience of our investment team to support our partners with financial analysis, capital structuring and strong industry relationships. We are also able to deliver, as appropriate, the corporate lending, leveraged finance, investment banking and industry expertise of CIBC's wholesale banking business as a whole.

Fund Investments

The Merchant Banking Group invests in third party funds aligned with our wholesale banking core franchise. Our investments with premier financial sponsors allow us to maintain strong industry relationships and generate incremental co-investment opportunities for our direct investing business.