Royal Trust (Canada)

Royal Trust (Canada) was founded in 1899 at Montreal. By the late 20th century, it carried on trust, financial, real-estate and deposit services in over 100 branches in Canada, the US and overseas. In 1993, the company was bought by the Royal Bank of Canada.

Royal Trust was founded in 1892. Of its charter board of 16 members, nine were members of the Bank of Montreal's board. The firm shared the premises of that Bank from 1895.Donald Smith, who at the time presided over the Bank of Montreal, was the inaugural president of the Royal Trust.

In 1978, Royal Trustco was founded at Ottawa to manage Royal Trust. In the mid-1980s, Royal Trustco ranked among the 10 largest financial institutions in Canada.

Canadian real estate developer Robert Campeau attempted to acquire the bank in 1988 and approached then-CEO Kenneth's White with an offer that White rebuffed. White later worked with the head of Toronto-Dominion Bank to sell a majority of shares to a consortium of Canadian businessmen. That consortium sold the bank in July 1983 to Trilon Financial Corporation, which was formed in 1982 as the financial service company of Brascan, which was controlled by the Bronfman family. Trilon made a $102 million share offering the proceeds, which were used to acquire a 42% controlling interest in Royal Trust.

In 1984, the real estate agency A.E. LePage merged with Royal Trust, to create the leading diversified real estate services organization in Canada. The new company is named Royal LePage.

In 1986 Royal Trustco acquired Dow Financial Services Corporation, Dow Chemical's financial services subsidiary, for C$239 million. Following this purchase, Royal Trust established R.T. Securities and Royal International in Amsterdam and opened an office in Tokyo to promote trade between Japan and Canada.

In 1987, Royal LePage became a publicly-traded company, trading on the Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal stock exchanges.

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