Greystone steadfast on strategy following acquisition by TD Bank

There will be “no change or deviation” from Greystone Asset Management’s mid-market strategy now that it has been acquired by Toronto-Dominion Bank Group, Jeff Mouland, the firm’s executive director and head of infrastructure, told Infrastructure Investor.

In fact, the open-ended Greystone Infrastructure Fund stands to benefit from the deal by gaining access to TD Bank’s institutional investors, according to Mouland. “Access to TD Bank’s distribution network and institutional and high-net-worth clients is accretive to our established investor base here in Canada,” he said.

The C$792 million ($601.6 million; €519.9 million) deal was announced in August. Following its expected close later this year, TD Bank will add Greystone’s C$36 billion alternatives portfolio to its own, making it Canada’s largest money manager at C$357 billion. Greystone’s name is changing to TD Greystone Asset Management, but its headquarters will remain in Regina, Saskatchewan.

As for its infrastructure group, Mouland said business will carry on the same way it has for the last five years, when the programme was launched. That includes investing in mid-market infrastructure mainly in North America and Europe, and writing cheques between C$50 million and C$200 million for generation, renewables, transmission, utilities and transportation assets.

According to the strategy Mouland described, it has been business as usual for the Greystone Infrastructure Fund since the TD Bank acquisition. In August, Greystone agreed to construct a 140,000-square-foot hangar at the Toronto Pearson International Airport for Skyservice Investments. The firm is building the asset in partnership with developer Rice Commercial Group, and it will be managed under a long-term lease.

Last week, Greystone announced it acquired a 100 percent equity interest in a 66MW portfolio of nine operating waste-heat and waste-gas power plants in Alberta. “With the acquisition, the fund has established a new energy infrastructure platform, WCSB Power Holdings LP,” the fund manager said in a statement, adding that the new platform will focus on acquisition opportunities in Western Canada.