Globalive founder Anthony Lacavera leading bid to buy beleaguered Wealth One Bank

By Alexandra Posadzki, Stefanie Marotta and James Bradshaw

Anthony Lacavera, the founder and chairman of Globalive Capital Inc., is leading a bid to acquire Wealth One Bank of Canada, a Toronto-based financial institution that is subject to extraordinary national-security conditions imposed by the federal Finance Minister.

Mr. Lacavera – who is known for founding the wireless carrier Wind Mobile, now known as Freedom Mobile – has raised $51-million for a bid that would see Globalive and a consortium of other investors take a 54-per-cent financial stake in the bank, according to an investor presentation reviewed by The Globe and Mail as well as two sources familiar with the matter. An additional capital injection of $200-million could follow in several years’ time.

The investor consortium includes high-net-worth families in Canada, the U.S. and Britain who have previously invested in the financial sector, as well as Globalive itself, according to one of the sources. The Globe is not identifying the sources because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the bid.

Last year, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland ordered three of the bank’s founding investors – insurance executive Shenglin Xian, grocery tycoon Yuangsheng Ou Yang and Vancouver property developer Morris Chen – to divest their shares.

The Finance Minister also imposed extraordinary national-security conditions on the bank, requiring it to sever all ties with the three men, who have faced scrutiny from Ottawa over their alleged connections to the Chinese government, and to implement strict anti-money-laundering measures.

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Published by the Globe and Mail.