BMO Financial Group to Acquire NY-based KGS-Alpha Capital Markets - Seite 2

Upon closing, KGS-Alpha will be rebranded as BMO Capital Markets.  The KGS management team, sales and trading professionals will become part of BMO Capital Markets' trading products group led by Mr. Gunderson.  Corporate Support Area professionals will report to their respective areas within BMO.

"We are very excited to join BMO Capital Markets," said Levent Kahraman, CEO and Co-Founder, KGS.  "BMO's strong brand recognition, balance sheet and culture of partnership will allow us to grow our business and enhance our capacity to service our clients."

The MBS bond market represents the second-largest U.S. fixed income securities market (behind U.S. Treasuries) with over $9.3 trillion in outstanding debt as of Q3 2017 and over $200 billion traded on a daily basis. KGS's inventory is about 96 per cent comprised of Agency (Fannie Mae, Ginnie Mae and Freddie Mac) MBS.

In connection with the transaction, BMO Capital Markets acted as financial advisor and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP acted as legal counsel to BMO. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC acted as financial advisor and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as legal counsel to KGS.

About BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets is a leading, full-service North American-based financial services provider offering corporate, institutional and government clients access to a complete range of products and services including equity and debt underwriting, corporate lending and project financing, merger and acquisitions advisory services, securitization, treasury management, market risk management, debt and equity research and institutional sales and trading.  With approximately 2,500 professionals in 30 locations around the world, including 16 offices in North America, BMO Capital Markets works proactively with clients to provide innovative and integrated financial solutions.

BMO Capital Markets is a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE, TSX:  BMO) one of the largest diversified financial services providers in North America with $728 billion total assets as at January 31, 2018.

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (and are made pursuant to the 'safe harbour' provisions of such Act) and applicable Canadian securities legislation. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the expected closing of the proposed transaction, plans for the acquired business and the financial impact of the proposed transaction and are typically identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "will", "should", "may", "could" and other similar expressions.