July 11 (Reuters) -
Laurentian Bank of Canada, the country's ninth largest bank, said on Tuesday it is conducting a review of strategic options.
Earlier in the day the Globe and Mail reported the bank's board of directors recently hired financial and legal advisers to pursue a potential sale.
The Montreal-based lender said no further developments will be disclosed until the review is concluded.
The Canadian financial sector has been consolidating following the nation's biggest lender Royal Bank of Canada's proposal to buy HSBC's Canadian business.
Laurentian laid out a three-year turnaround plan in late 2021 to streamline operations and boost profits.
The bank, in its statement, said it was "exceeding" its financial targets in an increasingly challenging macroeconomic environment and market volatility.
Chief Executive Officer Rania Llewellyn, who has led the bank for the past two years, has focused on cutting costs while streamlining and modernizing operations to position the lender as an alternative to the Big six banks that control roughly 80% of the market in Canada.
Laurentian's stock has gained about 3.3% so far this year, outperforming the top five banks in Canada. It has a market capitalization of C$1.46 billion. (Reporting by Pritam Biswas and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru and Nivedita Balu in Toronto; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and David Gregorio)