IR Leader
July 30, 2013

Top Stories

Canadian Securities Regulators Will Not Implement Proposed Rule for Venture Issuers

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) today announced that they will not pursue implementation of proposed National Instrument 51-103 Ongoing Governance and Disclosure Requirements for Venture Issuers (NI 51-103).

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Publish What You Pay Laws - Getting it Right Here in Canada

That various payments to domestic and foreign governments by natural resource companies should be subject to transparency obligations is now universally accepted as good public policy. Increasingly however, governments are transforming what to date has been a voluntary reporting process, developed by organizations such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, into legislated requirements. The debate has now moved beyond whether such payments should be reported, to what should be reported and the level of detail to be contained in the reports.

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Stock Buybacks Surge, Buy-side Benefits

Corporate buybacks are on the rise, and that's good news for liquidity-hungry buy-side traders.

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TSX Provides Guidance on Director Election Requirements

The Toronto Stock Exchange recently issued a staff notice (the "Staff Notice") providing guidance on the director election requirements (the "Requirements") set out in the TSX Company Manual (the "Manual") (for a summary of the Requirements, please see the McMillan bulletin titled new director election requirements for TSX companies). Guidance was provided with respect to six areas.

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How Audit Skepticism Has Fallen Short

Skepticism among auditors has been on the wane and needs to return in a big way, according to a panel of experts at a PCAOB small business forum.

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NYSE Amends Rule on Matters Requiring Shareholder Approval Under NYSE Rules

The New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") recently amended its rules to eliminate the quorum requirement that previously applied to proposals that require shareholder approval under NYSE rules. This rule change became effective July 11, 2013.

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SEC Said Near Proposal on Disclosure of CEO-to-Worker Pay

Public companies would be required to disclose how much more their chief executives are paid than rank-and-file workers under a rule to be proposed next month by U.S. securities regulators, according to two people familiar with the matter.

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OSC Review of Technical Reports: Miners Receive Failing Grade

On June 27, 2013 the Ontario Securities Commission published Notice 43-705 Report on Staff's Review of Technical Reports by Ontario Mining Issuers. The Notice discusses the results from the OSC's review of compliance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and, in particular, compliance with the technical report form (Form 43-101F1).

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OSC Ventures Cautiously into Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding -- the raising of capital, typically through small individual investments on an online platform -- has obvious appeal: it allows investors to take a relatively risk-free flutter, if the investment is small; and it provides smaller issuers, in particular, the ability to raise capital from a wide investor base. There are some obvious risks, of course, especially if larger investments are at stake. Fraud is the obvious one, but so are projects that raise some -- but not all -- of the capital they require.

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Earnings Calls: A Banker's Driveway Moment

Earnings season is part of the regular rhythm of American capitalism: Four times a year, companies announce whether they made or lost money in the previous three months. We're less than two weeks into the latest season and already a lot of investors, analysts and financial journalists are bored.

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