After a long journey through the legislative process, Bill C-25, which amends the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA), together with the Canada Cooperatives Act and the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, received Royal Assent on May 1, 2018. The amendments to the CBCA, once in force, will affect federally incorporated companies in three main areas: director ...
Following some controversy arising from the use of “soliciting dealer arrangements” in recent proxy contests, the Canadian Securities Administrators (the “CSA”) have released a staff notice and request for comment (the “Staff Notice”) seeking a range of general information from market participants about their prevalence and use, as well as the ...
Canada’s takeover bid regime was overhauled in 2016, with the intention of rebalancing the dynamics among offerors, target boards, and target shareholders (the “New Takeover Regime”). The New Takeover Regime comprises three key elements:
- bids must remain open for a minimum of 105 days (unless the target board reduces the period - to a minimum of 35 days - or enters ...
Over the past several years, a debate has sometimes simmered, sometimes raged around the question of whether so-called “activist investors” are on the whole good for companies, their stakeholders and the economy as a whole. Underlying that debate - and the accusations that are inevitably hurled about short-termism, value extraction and board insulation - is a deeper ...
The Ontario Securities Commission (the “OSC”) launched OSC Policy 15-601 – Whistleblower Program (the “Policy”) in July 2016, creating a “whistleblower” regime that seeks to encourage individuals and companies to report serious violations of securities laws or other securities-related misconduct to the OSC. The Policy, which was accompanied by ...
Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) has published its 2018 updates to its proxy voting guidelines for Canadian public companies. As it had indicated earlier this fall in the summary of its 2018 Global Policy Survey, ISS has implemented a gender diversity policy, to be phased in for certain issuers starting in the 2018 proxy season, and a revised ...
The Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX") has recently adopted final amendments to Parts IV and VI of the TSX Company Manual, following an initial proposal in 2016, that provide for new website disclosure requirements for certain TSX listed issuers and additional disclosure requirements relating to security based compensation arrangements (the "Plans"). The TSX has also ...
The Canadian Securities Administrators have issued a consultation paper[1] that, if it were to result in changes to relevant rules under securities law, could affect the composition of boards of directors and key committees of Canadian public companies. The Consultation Paper does not introduce any new rules, or even make any specific proposals for new rules. Rather, it ...
The Canadian Securities Administrators (“CSA”) have released Staff Notice 58-309 (the “Staff Notice”) summarizing their third annual review of disclosure relating to gender diversity on boards and in executive officer positions. The review covers certain disclosure relating to gender diversity that is required for non-venture issuers under amendments to ...
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