CI Financial has agreed to buy the Canadian unit of ETF provider WisdomTree Investments in a cash deal worth C$7m ($5.3m) to C$13m ($9.8m).

The acquisition of WisdomTree Asset Management Canada will bring 14 Toronto Stock Exchange-listed ETFs managing $958m to CI’s portfolio, increasing the latter’s ETF assets to nearly $8.9bn.

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CI, a Canadian asset manager, will pay C$5m upfront for the takeover upon deal completion in the first quarter of next year.

The remainder will be paid based on the fulfilment of certain AUM growth targets in the coming three years.

CI CEO Kurt MacAlpine said: “Notably, this acquisition gives us additional investment management capabilities through WisdomTree’s fundamentally weighted approach to indexing, which will be a strong complement to the CI First Asset ETF lineup.”

WisdomTree Canada ETFs will adopt the brand CI WisdomTree ETFs after the deal.

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However, the existing investment strategies of the WisdomTree ETFs will be retained, MacAlpine noted.

The current WisdomTree ETF line-up will also remain unchanged, excepting the WisdomTree U.S. High Dividend Index ETF that will be closed.

Besides, the firm will remain the index provider for the WisdomTree Canada ETFs.

The transaction is awaiting regulatory approval.

WisdomTree CEO Jonathan Steinberg said: “This transaction allows us to benefit from the scale and resources of CI Financial and participate more cost effectively in the continued growth of the Canadian ETF market by providing index licenses for each of the WisdomTree Canada funds that currently track WisdomTree’s proprietary indexes.”

The latest deal strengthens CI’s hold in the ETF space. Earlier, CI acquired First Asset Investment Management, another ETF provider.

The WisdomTree deal also comes shortly after CI’s announcement of an investment in fintech firm d1g1t.