Skip to main content
streetwise newsletter

Here are the top reads of the week. Have a great weekend,

Dissidents: An influential proxy advisory firm is urging shareholders of Crescent Point Energy Corp. to back half of an activist investor’s nominees to the company’s board, citing a record of subpar returns. Story (Jeffrey Jones, for subscribers)

Morgage brokers: A judge has ordered a trustee to take over the operations of the lead mortgage broker for beleaguered real estate developer Fortress Real Developments Inc., just a week after the RCMP raided Fortress’s Toronto-area offices as part of a syndicated-mortgage-fraud investigation. Story (Jeff Gray)

Caribbean banker: Entrepreneur Michael Lee-Chin bought a landfill site in the Dominican Republic almost five years ago, intending to develop a recycling centre and waste-to-energy plant on the property. The plan to spin Caribbean garbage into gold is now the subject of a high-stakes legal standoff. Story (Andrew Willis, for subscribers)

Stalking horse proposal: Toys “R” Us stores across Canada are in play as investment firm Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. circles the famed retailer of toys and baby products, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. Story (Jacqueline Nelson, for subscribers)

CIBC abandons plan: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has abandoned plans to list its Caribbean business on U.S. stock markets, putting the brakes on a process that had been seen as a possible precursor to leaving the region. Story (James Bradshaw, for subscribers)

Regulators: Canada’s mutual-fund regulator is looking to further expand the way investment fees are reported to investors to include ongoing costs – such as management expense ratios – in annual reports. Story (Clare O’Hara)

Building the talent pipeline for the future of Canada’s financial services industry: Speak to any CEO in the financial sector and they will no doubt cite attracting top talent as one of their highest priorities. Opinion (Jennifer Reynolds, CEO Toronto Financial Services Alliance)

Court: The bare-knuckle legal battle between two private equity funds reached a one-sided finish on Wednesday after an Ontario judge tossed out a $1.3-billion lawsuit from Catalyst Capital Group Inc. against rival West Face Capital Inc. Story (Andrew Willis)

Restating: Recovering mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc. has restated data on its residential home loan balances after detecting an error in a monthly filing with Canada’s banking regulator. Story (James Bradshaw, for subscribers)

Governance: The board of directors of Hydro One Inc. approved changes to the company’s executive compensation policies last year, making it much costlier for the government to intervene in the utility. Story (Janet McFarland and Just in Giovannetti)

Property hunt: Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and two Canadian investors have made Bombardier’s short list of buyers for the manufacturer’s aerospace plant and surrounding lands in northwest Toronto, according to sources familiar with the matter. Story (Jeff Gray, Rachelle Younglai, Greg Keenan and Nicolas Van Praet, for subscribers)

Financial products: Another Canadian bank is preparing to enter the exchange-traded-fund industry, with Bank of Nova Scotia planning the launch of a suite of its own Scotia-branded ETFs. Story (Clare O’Hara, for subscribers)

Financial products: Timing appears to be everything in the world of cannabis funds. Just over one year ago, the world’s first cannabis exchange-traded fund – officially known as the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF – started trading. Today, it has assets of roughly $700-million, a total return of 75 per cent since inception, and big inflows. Story (Matt Lundy, for subscribers)

Street moves: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has appointed a new head of its $25-billion infrastructure portfolio, the latest in a wave of changes in leadership positions across the country’s major pension funds. Story (Jacqueline Nelson, for subscribers)

Politics: Ed Clark’s frustration was palpable. Sitting on a podium in a drab government conference room one day in 2015, the newly retired chief executive of Toronto-Dominion Bank was fresh meat for the Ontario political press gallery. Opinion (Tim Kiladze, for subscribers)

Pension funds: Canada’s largest institutional investors are putting money into campsites and caravans in Europe, looking to affordable family summer vacations for profits. Story (Jacqueline Nelson, for subscribers)

Regulators: The B.C. government is giving two regulators more teeth to tackle some white-collar crimes in the province, bringing in the power of the courts to enforce fines against investor fraud. Story (Justine Hunter)

IPO or takeover? Two weeks ago, a dozen investment bankers spent a day in front of the slot machines and poker tables at three Vancouver casinos. They weren’t there for the gambling. Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd. toured the bankers through several of its B.C. properties, highlighting family-friendly steak houses and sports bars along with games of Texas Hold ’em as part of a marketing campaign for a long-promised initial public offering. Story (Andrew Willis, for subscribers)

FRIDAY FINANCIAL SERVICES WRAP

Overseas acquisition: Great-West Lifeco Inc. has signed a deal to acquire a strategic investment in Invesco Ltd. (Ireland), an employee benefit consulting and private wealth management firm. Story

Energy sector: Europe’s largest bank HSBC said on Friday it would mostly stop funding new coal power plants, oil sands and arctic drilling, becoming the latest in a long line of investors to shun the fossil fuels. Story

Regulation: Making senior employees directly accountable for their actions is one of the options in a new “tool kit” to combat the misconduct that has damaged public trust in financial services, a global regulatory body said on Friday. Story

Blockchain: JPMorgan Chase & Co has tested a new blockchain platform for issuing financial instruments with the National Bank of Canada and other large firms, they said on Friday, seeking to streamline origination, settlement, interest rate payments and other processes. Story

Fines: Wells Fargo & Co. will pay US$1-billion to federal regulators to settle charges tied to its mortgage- and auto-lending business, the latest chapter in a years-long, wide-ranging scandal at the banking giant. However, it appears that none of the money will go directly to the victims of the bank’s abuses. Story

FRIDAY DEAL WRAP

IoT: E-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has bought a Chinese microchip maker to further its cloud-based “internet of things” (IoT) business, underscoring its commitment to the chip industry, an Alibaba spokeswoman said on Friday. Story

Alternative energy: Boralex Inc., a portfolio company of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, has entered into an agreement with Ardian Infrastructure to acquire 100 per cent of the outstanding shares of Kallista Energy Investment SAS, for €129.4 million or $202 million plus the assumption of €94 million or $146.7 million in project debt. Private Capital Journal

The Streetwise newsletter is daily. If you’re reading this on the web, or if someone forwarded this e-mail to you, you can sign up for Streetwise and all Globe newsletters on our signup page.

Interact with The Globe