Banks chase two things: clients, and the bankers who can bring those clients in. Scotiabank just grabbed one of the most established names in mining banking.
Tory is a veteran mining banker who has worked in London and Hong Kong. He previously oversaw Morgan Stanley's worldwide metals and mining advisory work, and in late 2023 he succeeded Dougal Macdonald as head of the bank's Canadian investment-banking operation.
He counts former Toronto Mayor John Tory among his cousins, and his grandfather established Torys LLP.
Tory will step into a team that has been gaining ground. Matthew Hind, the current head of the global mining group, is expected to leave within the next several months, according to unnamed people familiar with the matter.
Hind joined the bank in 2021 after nearly ten years at Credit Suisse. Under Hind, Scotiabank's mining advisory business climbed the rankings in mining mergers and acquisitions, known as M&A.
Last year the bank ranked fourth in Canadian mining M&A, up from 12th in 2021, and it advised on announced deals worth about $28 billion, according to Bloomberg data. The deal list includes some notable names.
Scotiabank advised on the formation of Hemlo Mining Corp. when Barrick Gold sold off its final Canadian gold mine. It was also the lead adviser to Royal Gold on its stock-for-stock purchase of Sandstorm Gold Ltd., a deal paid for with shares and valued at about $3.5 billion.
The bank advised a special committee at Allied Gold Corp. when the sale of that precious-metals producer to China's Zijin Gold International was abandoned, a deal priced at C$5.5 billion ($4 billion in US dollars). Neither Tory nor Hind responded to requests for comment, and a Morgan Stanley spokesperson declined to comment.
Tory's arrival is not a one-off hire. Since Scotiabank's fiscal year began in November, it has added more than 30 managing directors across its markets business.
The bank recently resumed trading in precious metals. It has also hired externally for leveraged finance (lending to companies with lots of debt), infrastructure, and power and utilities roles.
On Tuesday, it announced the hire of Jay Sartain, a Houston-based managing director for energy in corporate banking. The man behind the push knows the competition well.
Travis Machen, the unit's CEO and group head, is a former Morgan Stanley managing director who joined Scotiabank in 2024 and has brought in several outsiders for prominent roles. Tory's new bosses, Dany Beauchemin and Matt Eilers, who jointly lead corporate and investment banking worldwide, said in a statement that his "leadership experience and longstanding industry relationships" would help Scotiabank's mining franchise.
Mining is one of the biggest engines of the Canadian economy, and Scotiabank is betting hard on it. When a bank brings in this much senior talent this quickly, it usually expects more deals ahead.
Those deals turn into revenue for the bank, and revenue is what eventually reaches shareholders. No single move guarantees anything, but a hiring push like this is a useful signal about where one of Canada's biggest banks sees its next round of growth.
Where a bank chooses to hire is often where it expects to grow, and Scotiabank is choosing mining in a big way. The proof will come later, in the deal announcements and the earnings reports.