(Bloomberg) -- National Bank of Canada won the first of three government approvals for its takeover of Canadian Western Bank after receiving clearance from the country’s antitrust regulator.
Montreal-based National Bank said in a statement Thursday that it’s secured the approval of Canada’s Competition Bureau for the all-stock deal, which was valued at C$5 billion ($3.7 billion) when the companies announced it in June. The takeover, which already has the support of Canadian Western shareholders, still needs the blessing of the country’s banking regulator and its minister of finance.
“This positive news from the Competition Bureau is a major step forward in uniting National Bank and CWB,” Chris Fowler, chief executive officer of Edmonton-based Canadian Western, said in the statement.
The approval also supports recent comments from National Bank CEO Laurent Ferreira that the deal could be on track for completion early next year, ahead of the end-of-2025 time frame the banks initially forecast.
“Things are moving along very nicely, and discussions with the Competition Bureau make us feel that we’re moving a little faster than anticipated at the announcement,” Ferreira said in an interview with Bloomberg News last week. He had said at a conference earlier in the month that National Bank is “working really hard toward an early 2025 close.”
The deal would add about C$42 billion of assets for National Bank, Canada’s sixth-largest bank, boosting the total to more than C$480 billion. National Bank’s next-largest competitor, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, has more than C$1 trillion in assets.
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