Ameriprise to Buy BMO Unit With $124 Billion in Client Funds (1)

Bank of Montreal agreed to sell its Europe, Middle East and Africa asset-management unit to Ameriprise Financial Inc. for 615 million pounds ($847 million), marking Chief Executive Officer Darryl White’s biggest move yet to trim the bank’s portfolio of non-core businesses.

The sale includes the opportunity for some U.S. clients to move to Ameriprise’s Columbia Threadneedle Investments unit, subject to their consent, Toronto-based Bank of Montreal said in a statement Monday. The deal also will give Bank of Montreal’s North American wealth management clients access to a range of Columbia Threadneedle products.

White, who took the reins of Canada’s fourth-largest ...