AGF, the Canadian investment group and one of the country’s largest independent mutual-fund managers, said it has increased its debt facility with a view to the possible purchase of an institutional asset manager in Europe or the US, one year after buying Acuity, the Toronto-based mutual fund manager.

AGF has increased the amount the firm can borrow. In a third quarter analyst call this week, Blake Charles Goldring, chairman and chief executive officer at AGF Management, said there were two main reasons for expanding its debt facility. The first was to "increase the debt capacity primarily for dry powder on the strategic acquisition side as opposed to any significant or thought-out repurchase plan on the shares."