proxy contest

Are You Ready for the 2025 Proxy Season?

By Kassy Corothers (Calgary) & James Farrell on October 23, 2024

Canada saw 69 shareholder activist campaigns in 2023 – an unprecedented high from previous years. The 2024 proxy season saw a continued evolution of the shareholder activism landscape with a record-breaking 76 activist campaigns across 55 Canadian companies and 11 sectors. Investors are continuing to seek change through activist measures and, with increased focus, are seeing higher success rates – nearly doubling the success rate of that of management.…

AI governance: considerations for the 2024 proxy season and beyond

By Destieny Burton on April 24, 2024

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As artificial intelligence (AI) regulation takes shape globally, public companies face the challenge of navigating this evolving landscape. In Canada, securities regulators are actively deliberating on how best to regulate AI, while in the US, companies are already…

Diversity on Canadian boards: key trends and potential changes to disclosure requirements

By Lauren Archibald on April 1, 2024

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Over the last decade, there has been a notable increase in the number of women on boards and in executive officer positions across Canadian issuers. This progress is reflected in the Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) annual review of…

B.C. Securities Commission sets high threshold for finding parties to be “acting jointly or in concert”

By Silas Lee on March 11, 2024

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Recently, the B.C. Securities Commission (the Commission) clarified the interpretation of “acting jointly or in concert” in the context of a proxy fight, setting a high bar for a finding of a joint actor relationship.

In NorthWest Copper Corp.…

Unitholder Democracy Prevails in a “Good Hard Look” at Board Decision Making

By Brayden Anstee, Mark Laschuk & Stephen Taylor on December 4, 2023

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Sandpiper Real Estate Fund 4 Limited Partnership v. First Capital Real Estate Investment Trust, 2023 ONSC 794

On February 1, 2023, our Special Situations team successfully obtained an order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) requiring that…

Webinar – Corporate governance, shareholder activism, and hostile M&A: Key developments in 2018 and a look ahead

By Joe Bricker on January 31, 2019

Walied Soliman and Orestes Pasparakis, co-chairs of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Canadian Special Situations team, will host a 60-minute webinar on corporate governance, shareholder activism, and hostile M&A on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 at 12 p.m. EST. To sign up, please

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Kingsdale Releases 2018 Proxy Season Review

By Peter Valente (Toronto) on September 28, 2018

Kingsdale Advisors has released its annual Proxy Season Review for 2018. The Review examines trends observed in 2018, predicts issues on the horizon, and provides advice to both issuers and activists in the marketplace.

In what follows, we pick out…

Activist Insight Monthly features interview with Co-Chairs of Canadian Special Situations team

By Joe Bricker on September 20, 2018

This month’s edition of Activist Insight Monthly, which focuses on Canada, features an in-depth interview with Walied Soliman and Orestes Pasparakis, Co-Chairs of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Canadian Special Situations team. The interview focuses on recent trends our team is seeing…

Tracking the Rise of Shareholder Activism through Withhold Campaigns in North America

By Simone Nash (Toronto) on July 16, 2018

In a recent post about Canadian proxy contest trends, we discussed the growing concern with “The Active Passive investor” and potential issues on the horizon given a surge in the use of “withhold” campaigns. As of late, the prominence of…

Defamation lawsuits as a defence to shareholder activism

By Michael Viner (Toronto) on September 18, 2017

Activist investors engaged in proxy fights typically mount aggressive public relations campaigns in order to undermine shareholder confidence in a target company’s performance and leadership, whether through social media, online forums or by using the more traditional PR channels. In…

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