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“Just to make sure if things all go to hell in the next couple of years, that there’s someone along with us that would be helpful,” Hibben said in an interview with the Financial Post.

This transaction “positions us to move beyond the liquidity event of earlier this year and get back to running this business in a long term way,” he told analysts.

Shareholder David Taylor, the founder and chief investment officer of Taylor Asset Management Inc., called the deal “positive” even with the discount.

“This is the price that you have to pay to get Buffett,” he said.

Brenda Eprile, chairwoman of Home Capital’s board of directors, said this was a “very important moment” for the company.

“I believe that when people look back on the events of 2017 at Home Capital, they will see this as a turning point,” she told analysts on a conference call Thursday morning.

Canada’s biggest alternative mortgage lender has faced eroding market confidence and a partial run on its funding — with depositors withdrawing roughly $2.9 billion of their guaranteed investment certificate and high interest savings account balances from its subsidiary since the end of March — amid allegations of misleading disclosure and executive departures.

The falling balances from Home Trust’s high-interest savings accounts forced the company to seek a $2-billion emergency credit line in April as a backstop, the onerous terms of which the company said would make it tough to meet its previously announced financial targets.