WINNIPEG - The Mackenzie unit of IGM Financial Inc. (IGM.TO) has agreed to pay the equivalent of $468 million to buy a 10 per cent interest in China Asset Management Co., Ltd.

The Winnipeg-based firm says the China AMC deal will diversify its business outside of Canada, where IGM primarily offers mutual fund and wealth management services through Investors Group and Mackenzie Financial.

IGM Financial President and CEO Jeffrey Carney joined BNN on Thursday and said that his company would continue to monitor opportunities for greater a greater stake in China AMC or the broader Chinese market.

“We’re obviously looking for opportunities as other shareholders make decisions on what they want to do, so we’re obviously going to be monitoring all those developments if they go forward,” he told BNN. “We’ll be actively involved with senior leadership there and we are actually going to have people in China representing us in the Beijing market place so that we can have feet on the ground and stay in touch with all the developments that are going on in that marketplace.”

Carney also responded directly to a Motley Fool article from Wednesday that labeled his company as one of three yields that “might not survive 2017”

“We feel very positive about where our dividend is today and we feel it that is an important part of what investors are looking for from us,” he told BNN. “We are working hard to continue to deliver that dividend as well as hopefully increase it in the future.”

China AMC had the equivalent of $215.2 billion of investment assets under management as of June 30. By comparison, IGM Financial had about $140 billion of assets under management as of Nov. 30.

Power Corporation of Canada (POW.TO) -- IGM's Montreal-based corporate parent -- previously acquired a 10 per cent ownership stake in China AMC in 2011.

IGM says the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2017, subject to Chinese regulatory approvals and other conditions.

- With files from BNN.ca

