For the next 18 to 24 months, iA Financial Group will slow the pace of acquisitions. 

The insurer wants to focus on its organic growth opportunities, CEO Denis Ricard said at the insurer's most recent investor day. 

“You should not expect significant acquisitions,” he says, except “something maybe along the way of a bolt-on acquisition.” 

 From Canadian life insurer to North American financial institution 

Twenty years ago, Ricard would have described his company as a Canadian life insurance company. Now he sees it as a North American financial institution. 

This continent-scale institution wants to play in markets where it can win, says Ricard. What are those playing fields? The mass mid-market, the middle class, he said. “Where its profitability is quite significant, more significant,” he adds. 

Some investors are wondering why iA Financial Group is in so many businesses, Ricard adds. He explains that the company’s foundation products are life insurance, financial products offered through auto dealerships and wealth management manufacturing, in both segregated and mutual funds. Activities like P&C and group insurance businesses support the other products. 

All these businesses create synergies and cross-selling opportunities, Ricard says. iA Financial Group thus took advantage of its leadership position in its basic markets and exported that expertise to other fields. “When you look at all that ecosystem of businesses, it’s all about having synergies in between so that, at the end of the day, one plus one equals more than two.” 

Why put acquisitions on ice 

By easing up on acquisitions, iA can make the most of these synergies, Ricard explains. “Seventy percent of the acquisitions in the past 20 years have been done over the last five years. So we’re going to take 18 to 24 months to consolidate, get all the synergies we can from all those acquisitions, both in Canada and the US, and resume our target acquisition journey thereafter. In the meantime, expect some bolt-on acquisitions, not more than that,” he says.

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