By Nivedita Balu and Jaiveer Shekhawat
(Reuters) -National Bank of Canada said on Tuesday it has agreed to buy collapsed U.S. regional lender Silicon Valley Bank's Canadian commercial loan portfolio, as the smallest of Canada's top six lenders looks to expand its footprint in the tech sector and diversify its loan book.
National Bank said in a statement it will acquire the C$1 billion ($752 million) loan portfolio made up of technology, life science and global fund banking sectors. Around C$325 million of that is outstanding.
National Bank already has made a number of bets in the tech space in Canada investing in fintech firms such as KOHO, Synctera and Flinks over the years.
"It (the SVB portfolio) really accelerates the implementation of this strategy to build out a strong coast-to-coast technology and innovation banking group," Michael Denham, the bank's head of commercial and private banking, said in an interview.
"This increases our scale. And with scale comes more new opportunities," Denham added. "... This give us access to other high quality, very interesting Canadian tech companies."
The assets will be integrated into National Bank's Technology and Innovation Banking Group, under the leadership of Tuyen Vo, who has led the group since 2019, the bank said.
The deal will likely close in the coming weeks and is not expected to have a material impact on its results, it added.
The fall of the Silicon Valley Bank in March triggered the worst U.S. banking crisis in 15 years and led to the failure of two other regional banks.
Veritas Investment Research analyst Nigel D'Souza said the deal does not restrict National Bank from acquiring Laurentian Bank, but that deal was now less likely.
"We continue to view National Bank as the best fit among the Big Six banks for Laurentian," D'Souza said. Laurentian, which has a C$1.72 billion market capitalization, has said it was reviewing strategic options.
National Bank declined to comment on the Laurentian bid.
($1 = 1.3289 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Will Dunham, Krishna Chandra Eluri and Shilpi Majumdar)
