Deal creates premier wealth manager in the UK, Channel Islands and Ireland

TORONTO, Sept. 27, 2022 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada ("RBC") today announced that it had completed the acquisition of Brewin Dolphin Holdings PLC ("Brewin Dolphin"), a multi-award-winning wealth management firm. Brewin Dolphin will now operate as 'RBC Brewin Dolphin', as part of RBC, and will continue to be led by CEO, Robin Beer.

Brewin Dolphin has been acquired for final consideration of approximately C$2.4bn (£1.6bn)¹ on a fully diluted basis, which equates to 515 pence per share.

RBC Wealth Management is a leading global wealth and asset manager with market leadership in Canada, and a growing position in the United States. Brewin Dolphin has more than 30 regional offices, over 2,100 employees and a long history of providing exceptional service to private clients. This is a transformative acquisition for both RBC Wealth Management and Brewin Dolphin, creating one of the largest wealth managers in the UK, Channel Islands and Ireland with £58 billion assets under management as at 31 August 2022.

RBC Wealth Management International and RBC Brewin Dolphin will continue to operate as separate businesses until integration over the coming months, with no immediate changes to the propositions that each business offers on day one. The respective leadership teams will now work closely together to deliver exceptional outcomes for clients, employees and shareholders.

Doug Guzman, Group Head, RBC Wealth Management, RBC Insurance and RBC Investor & Treasury Services, said:

"Bringing together these complementary teams will establish and secure RBC Wealth Management's position as a leading wealth manager in the UK and Ireland, while also providing future growth opportunities in an attractive and consolidating market. This platform enhances our franchise's global brand, scale and stability, as we strengthen our leading position across North America and now the UK. Most importantly, we are looking forward to bringing together two purpose-driven organizations with a shared commitment to doing what's right for our clients, our communities and each other."

David Thomas, CEO, RBC Wealth Management International said:

"We are delighted to complete the acquisition of Brewin Dolphin and excited to welcome its clients and talented colleagues to RBC. Brewin Dolphin brings outstanding experience, and an impressive track record of growth, innovation and investment performance. Our shared client-centric culture and values have really shone through over the past few months, and we look forward to developing this further, increasing the depth and breadth of our offering to clients and intermediaries."

Robin Beer, CEO, RBC Brewin Dolphin added:

"Our strategy to become a leading advice-focused, digitally enabled wealth manager is set to be accelerated by becoming part of RBC. What doesn't change is our focus on providing the exceptional advice and client focus that has been the foundation of our success and which made us of interest to RBC. In becoming RBC Brewin Dolphin we are combining two highly-regarded names and signaling our intention to further enhance our client proposition, and we are all incredibly excited about the future."

Click here to hear more on the completion of the acquisition from David Thomas and Robin Beer.

About RBC

Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 92,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada's biggest bank and one of the largest in the world, based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.

We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at rbc.com/community-social-impact.

About RBC Wealth Management

RBC Wealth Management directly serves affluent, high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients globally with a full suite of banking, investment, trust and other wealth management solutions, from our key operational hubs in Canada, the United States, the British Isles, and Asia. The business also provides asset management products and services directly and through RBC and third party distributors to institutional and individual clients, through its RBC Global Asset Management business (which includes BlueBay Asset Management). RBC Wealth Management has almost C$1.3 trillion of assets under administration, over C$929 billion of assets under management and more than 4,800 financial consultants, advisors, private bankers, and trust officers. For more information, please visit www.rbcwealthmanagement.com.

About RBC Brewin Dolphin

RBC Brewin Dolphin is one of the UK and Ireland's leading wealth managers and traces its origins back to 1762. We offer award-winning, personalised wealth management services from bespoke, discretionary investment management to retirement planning and tax-efficient investing.

Our qualified investment managers and financial planners are based in 33 offices across the UK, Jersey and Republic of Ireland. They are committed to the most exacting standards of client service, with long-term thinking and absolute focus on our clients' needs at the core.

As part of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), we are now able to draw on the strength of a global financial institution to continue to improve the service we provide to our clients and drive further innovation across our business.

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¹ Exchange Rate (£/ C$) = 1.47713462

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, including the "safe harbour" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any applicable Canadian securities legislation, with respect to RBC's and Brewin Dolphin's financial performance, beliefs, plans, expectations, and estimates. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to plans for the combined operations of RBC and Brewin Dolphin, the financial, operational and capital impacts of the proposed transaction, our strategies or future actions, and our objectives and commitments. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is presented for the purpose of assisting holders of our securities and financial analysts in understanding the proposed transaction and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward looking statements are typically identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "foresee", "forecast", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "goal", "commit", "target", "objective", "plan" and "project" and similar expressions of future or conditional verbs such as "will", "may", "might", "should", "could" or "would".

By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be correct and that our actual results may differ materially from such predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions.

We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of risk factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors – many of which are beyond our control and the effects of which can be difficult to predict – include, but are not limited to: the possibility that the anticipated benefits from the proposed transaction, such as being accretive to adjusted earnings per share (EPS), creating synergy opportunities and growing our UK operations are not realized in the time frame anticipated or at all as a result of changes in general economic and market conditions, interest and exchange rates, monetary policy, laws and regulations (including changes to capital requirements) and their enforcement, and the degree of competition in the geographic and business areas in which RBC and Brewin Dolphin currently operate; the risk that any announcements relating to the combination could have adverse effects on the market price of the common stock of RBC; the possibility that the business of RBC and Brewin Dolphin may not perform as expected or in a manner consistent with historical performance; the ability to promptly and effectively integrate Brewin Dolphin; our ability to achieve our capital objectives; our ability to cross-sell more products to customers; reputational risks and the reaction of Brewin Dolphin's customers and employees to the transaction; diversion of management time on integration-related issues; increased exposure to exchange rate fluctuations; material adverse changes in economic and industry conditions; general competitive, economic, political and market conditions; and other risks discussed in the risk sections and Impact of COVID-19 pandemic section of our2021 Annual Report and the Risk management section of our Q3 2022 Report to Shareholders, and the factors discussed in Brewin Dolphin's Annual Report and Accounts 2021 all of which outline certain key factors and risks that may affect our future results and our ability to anticipate and effectively manage risks arising from all of the foregoing factors.

We caution that the foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect our results. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to us, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Material economic assumptions underlying the forward looking-statements contained in this press release are set out in the Economic, market and regulatory review and outlook section and for each business segment under the Strategic priorities and Outlook sections in our 2021 Annual Report, as updated by the Economic, market and regulatory review and outlook section of our Q3 2022 Report to Shareholders.

Any forward-looking statements contained in this document represent the views of RBC and Brewin Dolphin only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, neither RBC nor Brewin Dolphin undertakes to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.

SOURCE RBC Wealth Management

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Royal Bank of Canada completes acquisition of Brewin Dolphin