The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Aug. 29, edition that Desjardins Group is paying $1.67-billion in cash to acquire Guardian Capital Group. The Globe's Jameson Berkow writes that Desjardins is offering $68 per share for Guardian, pending court, shareholder and regulatory approval, expected to close in early 2026. Desjardins Global Asset Management manages about $112-billion, mainly in Quebec, while Guardian oversees about $168-billion, primarily in the U.S. Desjardins president Nicolas Richard said: "It is one thing to have a lot of assets under management, but this transaction will allow us to present a deeper and broader roster of strategies and solutions and products to our clients around the world. We have big plans for the private markets platform." George Mavroudis, who has been Guardian's chief executive officer since 2011 and will become CEO of the combined entity, said once the transaction closes, the new company will have more than $10-billion in private assets held in sectors such as infrastructure and real estate. He said, "That is a growing field and we are looking at how we can expand that." Guardian is the second-largest Canadian asset manager to go private in the past year.