On March 31, 2015, the Canadian Securities Administrators (the CSA) published proposed amendments to Canada’s take-over bid regime (the Proposed Amendments) under Multilateral Instrument 62-104 – Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids, other related instruments and the Ontario
M&A
Decision-making and Institutional Investors: Prevalent Factors and Key Market Distinctions
According to the recently published Global Institutional Investors Insight survey, shareholder activism is on the rise. The survey, which canvassed over 500 institutional investor and sell-side research analysts from across North American, European and Asian markets, reports that more…
Corporate Governance 2014: Corporate Governance in Special Situations
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP and Lexpert will again be co-hosting two full-day seminar sessions entitled “Corporate Governance 2014: Corporate Governance in Special Situations” on December 4th (Toronto) and December 8th (Calgary). These seminars will include…
‘Wolf Packs’ and Other Recent Trends in Hedge Fund Activism
The recent increase in hedge fund activism is “hyperbolic” and should be carefully assessed, according to two notable scholars, John C. Coffee Jr. (corporate law; Columbia) and Darius Palia (corporate finance; Rutgers), who have just published on comprehensive study on…
2014 Q3 Proxy Update
The 2015 proxy season is fast approaching, PwC and Broadridge released a quarterly research report which reviews proxy related data from 4,113 shareholder meetings
held between January 1 and June 30, 2014 and highlights several themes and trends that may…
Defensive Tools in Shareholder Activism: The “Voting Pill”
In today’s Financial Post, Barbara Shecter highlighted the use of modified shareholder rights plans (colloquially known as “poison pills”) as an emerging defensive tool against opportunistic shareholder activism in Canada. Traditionally, poison pills are used by boards of target…
CSA Drops Early Warning Report Proposals
The Canadian Securities Administrators (the CSA) provided an update today on its proposed amendments to the early warning system regime. Specifically, the CSA announced that it has determined that they will not proceed with: (a) the proposal to reduce…
Trends and Predictions in Canadian Proxy Contests
Kingsdale Shareholder Services has released its 2014 Proxy Season Review. In its report, Kingsdale discusses trends observed in 2014, predictions for the future, and gives its key recommendations for companies in the Canadian marketplace. In reviewing 2014 and comparing…
Canadian Securities Administrators to Propose Amendments to Canadian Take-over Regime
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have announced that they intend to publish for comment significant amendments to the Canadian take-over bid regime in the first quarter of 2015. The amendments are an initiative of all CSA members and are intended…
Shareholder Activism in 2014: Half Year Review
Activist Insight recently released its half-year review. Activist Insight, which provides market analysis and chronicles critical developments in activist investing, made the following observations regarding U.S. activist investing trends for the first half of 2014, including:
- While the US
…