{"id":22111,"date":"2025-10-23T23:30:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=22111"},"modified":"2025-10-23T23:30:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:30:51","slug":"first-national-completes-2-9-billion-privatization-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=22111","title":{"rendered":"First National completes $2.9-billion privatization deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

First National Financial Corp. has officially completed its $2.9-billion privatization deal, marking a major ownership shift for one of Canada\u2019s largest non-bank mortgage lenders.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Jason
Jason Ellis<\/strong><\/em>, CEO of First National<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The transaction, first announced in July, sees private equity firms Birch Hill Equity Partners and Brookfield Asset Management acquire roughly 62% of First National\u2019s equity through a new holding entity, Regal Holdings LP. <\/p>\n

Founders Stephen Smith and Moray Tawse each retain an indirect 19% stake, maintaining significant involvement in the company they co-founded nearly four decades ago.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, all outstanding common shares\u2014excluding those held by Smith and Tawse\u2014were purchased for $48 per share in cash, representing about a 15% premium over the company\u2019s 30-day average at the time of the announcement. The deal values the company at approximately $2.9 billion.<\/p>\n

New ownership, same leadership<\/h3>\n

First National\u2019s senior management team remains unchanged, with Jason Ellis continuing as CEO and Moray Tawse serving as board chair. <\/p>\n

At Mortgage Professionals Canada\u2019s National Conference held this week, Ellis told attendees that while the lender is returning to private ownership, nothing about its day-to-day business or broker relationships will change.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Wednesday we\u2019ll be closing our agreement with Birch Hill and Brookfield to take First National back private,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when we wake up on Thursday morning, nothing will be any different. It\u2019s going to be the same as it ever was\u2014just a few different board members and a little bit more hassle for me from a reporting perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis added that the transaction will also provide additional resources for the company\u2019s future growth. \u201cThey\u2019re going to empower us with capital and technology and some great intellectual resources,\u201d he said, \u201cbut otherwise it\u2019s business as usual at First National.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new board now includes 10 directors, with plans to expand to 11 once William Stone joins following a future amendment to the company\u2019s articles.<\/p>\n

Visited 1,061 times, 895 visit(s) today<\/p>\n

birch hill equity Brookfield Asset Management Editor’s pick First National Jason Ellis lenders Moray Tawse<\/p>\n

Last modified: October 23, 2025<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First National Financial Corp. has officially completed its $2.9-billion privatization deal, marking a major ownership shift for one of Canada\u2019s largest non-bank mortgage lenders. Jason Ellis, CEO of First National The transaction, first announced in July, sees private equity firms Birch Hill Equity Partners and Brookfield Asset Management acquire roughly 62% of First National\u2019s equity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[8624,7127,1236,1345,4069],"class_list":{"0":"post-22111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mortgage","8":"tag-2-9billion","9":"tag-completes","10":"tag-deal","11":"tag-national","12":"tag-privatization"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}