In mid-November, Patheon Inc., a mid-sized pharmaceutical manufacturer based in Toronto, announced plans to go private and merge with Dutch health-care company Royal DSM. It was JLL Partners, a New York-based hedge fund and Patheon's majority shareholder, that engineered the transaction by partnering with Royal DSM in what The Globe and Mail described as a "complex" takeover deal. | Read Article |

As an IR practitioner, you have to arm yourself with lots of information to be able to address questions and concerns and to understand where your company fits among its peers and in the marketplace. But where do you get the information? | Read Article |

It is becoming increasingly difficult for IROs to identify their companies' shareholders and affect ownership through good communication. In addition to the lack of transparency caused by beneficial shareholders holding ownership through brokerages, there is a growing trend by activist firms to use synthetic derivative tools to boost their ownership in a company, yet remain hidden from sight. | Read Article |

Earlier this fall, ISS solicited comments on proposed amendments to three of its proxy voting guidelines. On November 21, 2013, ISS published the 2014 Updates to its Canadian Corporate Governance Policy (the "2014 Updates"), which included the final amendments to the three guidelines described below. The 2014 Updates are effective for shareholders meetings held on or after February 1, 2014. | Read Article |

For some time, investors, analysts and other users of financial statements have been calling for the auditor's report to be more informative, and include relevant insights gained during the audit. The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) addressed this issue in July 2013 when it released an Exposure Draft with proposed new standards aimed at fundamentally transforming the auditor's report. | Read Article |