Desjardins Financial Group makes $443-million cash offer to buy Western Financial Group

Desjardins Financial Group has made a $443-million, all-cash offer to buy Western Financial Group (TSX:WES), the largest insurance and financial services retailer in Western Canada.
The transaction contemplated by the offer will be carried out by way of a take-over bid through Desjardins Financial Corporation Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Desjardins Financial Group.
Western Financial Group has entered into a support agreement with Desjardins Financial Corporation, confirming that it will support the offer subject to customary conditions.
Full details of the offer will be included in a formal offer and take-over bid circular. The transaction is expected to close in 2011 Q2.
“We are confident that our acquisition by the Desjardins Financial Group, a rapidly expanding and innovative winner in Canadian financial services, will serve the interests of our shareholders, customers, employees and communities,” said Scott Tannas, founding president and CEO of Western Financial Group. “At a time when other smaller financial services companies are being swallowed up into monolithic corporate entities, our special Western Financial Group brand – a brand with deep roots in the heartlands of Canada – will be maintained and, indeed, enhanced, under the broad Desjardins umbrella.”
Desjardins is the largest cooperative financial group in Canada and the sixth largest in the world, with assets of more than $175 billion. Its business units include the Desjardins General Insurance Group, which has a portfolio of 1.8 million policies in force, a business volume of approximately $1.5 billion and assets of $2.9 billion.
Western Financial has 121 offices in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its business units include The Network, the largest property and casualty brokerage in Western Canada.