Darrin Hopkins - a retail investment adviser with Macquarie Private Wealth's Calgary office, a long time veteran of the venture markets, a practitioner in the world of capital pool companies and member of two TSX advisory committees looking into such matters - has for more than a year been telling anybody who will listen about the state of play in those sectors.
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New SEC rules on conflict-mineral disclosure put scrutiny on sourcing.
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On February 20, 2013, SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar delivered a speech regarding the need for more robust disclosure in proxy statements and highlighted areas in which disclosure can be substantially improved.
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Activist investing has become quite the rage in the equity marketplace. Activist investors are proliferating, and there is a marked inflow of new capital to this asset class. The discipline of activist investing is popping up in more conversations about the nature and role of equity investors. As a result, it is occupying the thoughts, and sometimes the nightmares, of an increasing number of corporate executives and their advisers.
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Staff of the Ontario Securities Commission yesterday issued guidance that clarifies some of the matters discussed in our earlier post. Specifically, the guidance sets out OSC staff's interpretation of the interaction of notice-and-access with NP 11-201 Electronic Delivery of Documents as well as the availability of notice-and-access to reporting issuers incorporated under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario).
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The purpose of this staff notice is to provide staff guidance to reporting issuers, intermediaries and others involved in the sending of proxy-related materials to registered holders and beneficial owners of an issuer's securities (collectively, shareholders) on: the interaction of notice-and-access with National Policy 11-201 Electronic Delivery of Documents (NP 11-201); and, whether reporting issuers incorporated under the Ontario Business Corporations Act (OBCA) can use notice-and-access.
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Business law lawyer, David Street describes crowd funding, a new and evolving tool that business start-ups and SMEs are using to raise capital.
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Amendments to National Instrument 54-101 Communication with Beneficial Owners of Securities of a Reporting Issuer (NI 54-101) are now in force. These amendments give reporting issuers and others the option to use the 'notice-and-access' method to post proxy-related materials on a website (in addition to SEDAR) instead of having to mail materials to registered holders (under National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations (NI 51-102)) and to beneficial owners (under NI 54-101).
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The new 'say on pay' rules enacted as part of the Dodd-Frank Act were put in place to try to make executive compensation more accountable and transparent to investors. However, as we enter this year's proxy season, it appears as though corporate advisers rather than corporate shareholders are reaping the benefits of the new rules.
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Canadian issuers with significant business operations in emerging markets are coming under increased
scrutiny by market regulators here. In the last 12 months, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and the two major Canadian stock exchanges have published three papers on the adequacy of regulations
governing emerging-market issuers.
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Shareholders are filing resolutions asking companies to disclose physical risks posed by climate change for the first time this proxy season, according to representatives of sustainable investor groups.
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