CIRI Staff extends Best Wishes to you and your family for a safe, healthy and Happy Holiday.
The CIRI office will be closed on December 24, reopening on January 2. Watch for CIRI wIRed to resume on January 6.
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The Awards of Excellence in Corporate Reporting are the most prestigious and coveted national awards of their kind. Award winners join an elite group.
In addition to recognizing the best reporting practices of Canadian listed companies and Crown organizations, the awards raise the overall bar in corporate reporting. Entrants receive confidential assessments from the independent judging panel, which includes CIRI members, detailing how they measure up against the winners and recommending changes to help them improve the quality of their corporate reporting.
Click here to read the complete list of this year's winners.
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CDS Clearing and Depository Services Inc. (CDS) recently proposed amendments to its fee schedule for issuer services.
COMMENT PERIOD ENDS DECEMBER 13, 2014
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On November 27, 2014, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published proposed amendments to the rights offering regime that aim to make rights offerings more expedient and less costly by creating a streamlined prospectus exemption for reporting issuers (Proposed Exemption). The proposed amendments also aim to increase investor protection with the addition of civil liability for secondary market disclosure and the introduction of a more user-friendly form of rights offering circular document. Finally, the proposed amendments would also update requirements for prospectus-based rights offerings and would repeal the prospectus exemption for rights offerings by non-reporting issuers. This article highlights several of the proposed changes.
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The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have introduced amendments to National Instrument 51-101 Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities (NI 51-101) and related forms, which are designed to improve and clarify the disclosure of reporting issuers in the oil and gas industry. Revised versions of Companion Policy 51-101 Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities (Companion Policy), CSA Staff Notice 51-324 Revised Glossary to NI 51-101 Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities (CSA Staff Notice 51-324) and CSA Staff Notice 51-327 Revised Guidance on Oil and Gas Disclosure (CSA Staff Notice 51-327) have also been published.
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The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) today released the Oversight Review Report that focuses on certain functional areas and key processes of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).
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In a previous blog ("ABA Discusses Four Hot Topics") I promised to provide further information on the key topics discussed at the American Bar Association's Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation & Section 16 Subcommittee. However, I left one important topic off the list: a report presented by Ron Schneider of global financial communications giant R.R. Donnelley on its "Groundbreaking Investor Survey: What You Need to Know Before Drafting Your Next Proxy." The report contains several important insights that all of us who work in this area ought to consider.
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The CSA today released amendments to NI 51-101 Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities intended to promote the disclosure of resources other than reserves, while also improving flexibility for issuers.
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As you probably already know, the Ontario Securities Commission is implementing amendments to its corporate governance guidelines to address the persistent underrepresentation of women on boards and in executive positions.
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Just days after Canada's flawed rights offering regime made headlines, on November 27th the Canadian Securities Administrators (the "CSA") published for further comment revised proposed amendments that would create a streamlined prospectus exemption for rights offerings by reporting issuers (the
"Proposed Amendments"). The Proposed Amendments have been designed to make rights offerings more attractive to reporting issuers by decreasing both the time and costs involved.
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In our September 2014 Blakes Bulletin: Prospectus Offerings: 5 Questions Issuers Need to Consider (Initial Bulletin), we identified five questions Canadian public companies raising capital should consider. In this article, we identify five further questions to be considered prior to launching a prospectus offering of securities.
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From private debt and equity markets to crowd funding, exempt markets have been used to raise more money
for Canadian enterprises in recent years than all public offerings put together. Vastly more: Between 2010 and 2012, exempt-market offerings raised four times as much capital as the initial and secondary public offerings
during the same period. The precise reasons behind the immense popularity of exempt markets can only be guessed at; it may well be due to the desire, by both issuers and by investors, to avoid the regulatory costs associated with raising capital in public markets. We are left to speculate, however, because the Canadian exempt market remains relatively unstudied, despite its enormous role in funding capital investments in Canada.
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Shareholders filed 72 resolutions about climate change so far this year, a drastic jump from the 26 filed two years ago, according to the US SIF Foundation report on shareholder advocacy released recently.
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The government is about to take the plunge into trading "dark pools."
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