Corporate governance - Vigil

Regulators have warned they want to see better reporting of outcomes from action on corporate culture rather than simply reproducing policy statements. Watchdogs at the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) used a new podcast to call for improvements after a report early this year highlighted "very low" quality disclosures among companies on promoting their desired cultures. Lauren Tynen, senior corporate governance policy associate at the FRC, said the regulator did not want "empty words" in reporting, it wants to see "action".

Private equity fund KKR has urged the board of British healthcare real estate investor Assura to back its takeover bid and withdraw its support for a rival offer from Primary Health Properties. KKR, which is leading the bid with Stonepeak Partners, said in a statement on Friday it had met with the board of Assura in recent days to lobby for its own cash takeover of the company after Assura backed an offer from London-listed PHP in June. The U.S.-based private equity firm and PHP were locked in a takeover battle for Assura for months before Assura's board backed PHP's higher $2.4 billion bid in June. KKR said a number of factors had changed since Assura decided to back PHP's offer, including a decline in the share price of both companies which has raised the premium of its own cash offer.

Meta has tapped U.S. bond giant PIMCO and alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital to spearhead a US$29 billion financing for its data center expansion in rural Louisiana, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. PIMCO will handle about $26 billion of debt, likely to be issued in the form of bonds, while Blue Owl will contribute $3 billion in equity, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bloomberg News, which first reported the deal, said that the company has been working with Morgan Stanley to raise funds, while Apollo Global Management and KKR were also in the running to lead the deal until the closing stage of negotiations.

In dealing with America’s biggest companies, the commander in chief has no qualms about acting as the micromanager in chief. President Trump took his penchant for telling corporate bosses how to run their companies to another level Thursday by publicly calling on Intel’s chief executive to resign. The move wasn’t out of character: Trump has told Detroit carmakers not to raise prices and demanded Walmart “eat the tariffs.” He has pressured the Washington Commanders football team to change its name and wants Coca-Cola to use cane sugar instead of corn syrup. All of that intervention is creating a risk for business leaders who thought they had largely figured out the Trump playbook. Public flattery and splashy U.S. investment announcements were supposed to placate the president and keep companies out of his Truth Social posts. Instead, the Republican is weighing in on business decisions in unprecedented ways, in industries from pharmaceuticals to banking and manufacturing.

Manulife Financial Corp. is pushing deeper into the fast-growing private credit market and expanding its direct lending to mid-sized companies as part of the insurer’s plan to build up its alternative asset management business. Manulife announced Wednesday that it is buying a 75-per-cent stake in Florida-based private credit manager Comvest Credit Partners for US$937.5-million. Comvest has US$14-billion of assets, having grown its flagship credit fund eightfold over the past decade. Manulife has an option to buy the remainder of the business in six years. And if Comvest meets certain performance targets, its existing owners are in line to receive earnout payments of up to US$337.5-million. When combined with Manulife’s existing US$3.7-billion private credit business, which mostly makes private-equity-backed loans, Manulife will manage US$18.4-billion of private loans.

L’entreprise SpaceX du multimilliardaire Elon Musk a signé un partenariat inédit avec l’Agence spatiale italienne pour acheminer sur Mars des outils scientifiques, ont annoncé jeudi leurs responsables respectifs. « L’Italie va s’envoler pour Mars ! », a clamé le chef de l’agence italienne (ASI), Teodoro Valente, sur le réseau social X, annonçant cet accord qui doit permettre de « transporter des expériences italiennes lors des premiers vols commerciaux de Starship vers Mars ». Cette mégafusée développée par SpaceX pour aller sur la Lune et la planète rouge est toujours en cours de développement, et ses derniers vols d’essai en début d’année se sont soldés par de spectaculaires explosions. Elon Musk, qui ambitionne de « coloniser Mars » et qui est connu pour ses prévisions très optimistes, continue toutefois de tabler sur de premiers lancements dès 2026.

Le président américain Donald Trump compte propulser son conseiller économique Stephen Miran à un poste stratégique au sein de la banque centrale des États-Unis (Fed), qu’il veut voir baisser les taux d’intérêt. La nomination de Stephen Miran, défenseur inlassable de la politique économique du président dans les médias, doit encore être confirmée par le Sénat à majorité républicaine. Le chef de l’État s’était donné quelques jours pour décider du nom de la personne qui prendra la place de la gouverneure Adriana Kugler. Mme Kugler a annoncé sa démission la semaine dernière, alors que son mandat devait prendre fin quelques mois plus tard.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that would allow 401(k) retirement accounts to include alternative assets such as private equity, real estate and digital assets, which have long been used by institutional investors and wealthy individuals seeking exposure outside public markets. The order said it would clear the way for 401(k) investors to access alternative assets for better returns and diversification. It directs the Department of Labor, the SEC, the Secretary of the Treasury, and other federal regulators to reexamine, clarify and revise relevant regulations to eventually enable defined-contribution retirement plans to invest in these assets. The potential regulatory shift, first reported by the Wall Street Journal last month, has been welcomed by the private markets industry.

Paramount Global and Skydance Media have completed their $8.4 billion merger that was announced more than a year ago, the companies said, capping a long-drawn deal process marked by political scrutiny and shareholder concerns. Renamed "Paramount Skydance Corp", the company's Class B shares will start trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol PSKY from Thursday. The merger brings together a major player in the industry with a sprawling global distribution network and a prized film and TV library, including classics such as "Breakfast at Tiffany's", with Skydance's production and technological capabilities. "Today marks Day One of a new Paramount...the coming months will be defined by a series of focused efforts to re-engineer how our company operates, produces its creative content, and goes to market," said David Ellison, Chairman and CEO of the combined company.

ConocoPhillips will sell its Anadarko Basin assets for $1.3 billion, the energy producer said on Thursday, after beating Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit. The asset sale, expected to close at the beginning of the fourth quarter, pushes ConocoPhillips past its $2 billion non-core asset disposition target ahead of schedule. The company raised its asset-sale goal to $5 billion by 2026, with an aim to unlock $1 billion in cost and margin gains. In April, Reuters reported ConocoPhillips was exploring the sale of Oklahoma assets gained through its $22.5 billion takeover of Marathon Oil, which expanded its presence in key U.S. basins and added operations in Equatorial Guinea. The Marathon deal helped lift the company's second-quarter production to 2.39 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), up 446,000 boepd from a year earlier.

Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager, has agreed to buy energy data and analytics provider Enverus, it said in a statement on Wednesday, as dealmaking in the private equity sector shows signs of recovery after a slowdown. Reuters had exclusively reported last week that Blackstone had emerged as the frontrunner to buy Enverus. No financial details were given, but a source familiar with the matter said the deal could value the target at as much as $6.5 billion if Enverus meets certain financial metrics. At the closing of the deal, Blackstone will commit between $6.1 billion and $6.4 billion to acquire Enverus, the source said, adding that the transaction is expected to be financed with around $3 billion of debt. 

He said Ottawa needs to prepare for that to happen this fall. Ford made the comments after the country’s premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney met in private for the first time since Trump escalated his trade war by hitting Canada with a baseline 35 per cent tariff last week. The new tariff, which took effect on Friday after the two countries failed to hit an Aug. 1 deadline to secure a new trade agreement, applies only to goods not covered by the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement on free trade, better known as CUSMA. Ford said Trump likely won’t wait for the scheduled review of the agreement next year.

Intel’s shares are tumbling before markets opened Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post that the chipmaker’s CEO needs to resign. “The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!” Trump made the post after Senator Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel Chairman Frank Yeary expressing concern over CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s investments and ties to semiconductor firms that are reportedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army. Cotton specifically called out Tan’s recent leadership of Cadence Design Systems in the letter. The tech company admitted in July to selling its products to China’s National University of Defense Technology in violation of U.S. export controls.

One of Core Scientific’s biggest investors has threatened to launch a revolt against CoreWeave’s planned purchase of the group, arguing the deal’s structure is “deficient” and could undervalue it. Two Seas Capital, a hedge fund that owns more than 6 per cent of Core Scientific shares, intends to begin a proxy battle against the tie-up. It said it would “vote against the transaction” and urge other shareholders to do so unless CoreWeave improves the financial terms, according to an investor letter published on Thursday. CoreWeave’s shares have tumbled by a quarter since the deal was announced on July 7, reversing course after a sharp rally following the data centre operator’s Wall Street debut in March. The company’s purchase of Core Scientific, which leases out computing power, was structured as an all-share deal, which means the falling stock price reduces the deal’s value.

Thyssenkrupp shareholders on Friday approved a planned spin-off of its defence division, the conglomerate's latest restructuring move, aimed at fully capturing the value of the division amid rising military spending in Europe. The order book of Thyssenkrupp's TKMS division - which makes submarines, frigates and develops mine-sweeping technologies - has swollen to more than 18 billion euros ($21 billion) from 11.7 billion at the end of September last year. That has in turn boosted shares of its parent, which have more than doubled year-to-date, while more ambitious defence spending plans have also benefited European defence peers more broadly. Thyssenkrupp plans to spin off 49% of TKMS to its existing shareholders while keeping the remaining stake. The Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach foundation, Thyssenkrupp's largest shareholder with a 21% stake, welcomed the vote, saying the spin-off of TKMS opened up new business opportunities, without elaborating.

Intel Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan was already at odds with some board members before President Trump jumped into the fray. Tan and some Intel directors have disagreed in his first months in the role about questions as central as whether the company should stay in the manufacturing business or exit it entirely, according to people familiar with the matter. Recent efforts by Tan to raise new capital and acquire an artificial-intelligence company have been stalled by people on the board, they said. On Thursday, the internal tensions were heightened when Trump unexpectedly called for Tan’s ouster, claiming he is “conflicted” by business ties to China. Intel so far is standing by Tan. The company said Thursday that it, the board and Tan are all “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests and making significant investments aligned with the President’s America First agenda.”

U.K. antitrust officials said they wouldn’t open an in-depth probe into Boeing’s deal to acquire fuselage maker Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, effectively clearing the transaction weeks after they launched the first phase of an investigation. The Competition and Markets Authority started looking at the deal in June to determine whether it could stifle competition in the U.K. Officials have now concluded that isn’t the case and said the transaction didn’t warrant a more in-depth probe. Boeing agreed to acquire Spirit in July last year in a roughly $4.7 billion deal that included Boeing-related commercial operations as well as commercial, defense and aftermarket operations. Spirit, which split from Boeing about two decades ago, has been at the center of quality issues affecting 737 MAX jets. Spirit’s factory in Wichita, Kan., made the fuselage involved in last year’s Alaska Airlines door-plug blowout.

The Canadian economy lost thousands of jobs in July, sending the share of people employed in the population to an eight-month low, data showed on Friday, as the labour market gave back substantial gains seen in the prior month. The economy shed 40,800 jobs in the month, compared with a net addition of 83,000 jobs in June, taking the employment rate, or the percentage of people employed out of the total working-age population, to 60.7 per cent, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The loss of jobs was concentrated among permanent employees, Statscan said. The unemployment rate, however, remained steady at a multi-year high of 6.9 per cent. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast the economy would add 13,500 jobs and the unemployment rate would tick up to 7 per cent.

En réponse au contexte d’incertitude généré par la guerre tarifaire menée par les États-Unis, le chef désigné de Projet Montréal, Luc Rabouin, a annoncé jeudi un investissement de 1,35 million pour accompagner les entreprises montréalaises dans la diversification de leurs marchés, mais aussi pour encourager l’achat local. Luc Rabouin, qui est le candidat de Projet Montréal à la succession de Valérie Plante, a admis d’emblée que la Ville de Montréal avait « des pouvoirs et des ressources limités », mais qu’il avait le devoir de répondre présent. « Ce sont des mesures complémentaires à celles mises en place par les gouvernements fédéral et provincial », a précisé M. Rabouin, président du comité exécutif de la Ville.

Mettre fin aux achats de pétrole russe ou se voir attribuer des droits de douane élevés, tel est l’ultimatum lancé par Washington à New Dehli et qui pourrait avoir des conséquences politiques et économiques majeures tant au niveau national qu’à l’étranger. Narendra Modi, le premier ministre, qui dirige la nation la plus peuplée au monde et la cinquième économie mondiale doit faire face à des décisions difficiles. Le président américain Donald Trump a donné à son allié de longue date qui est l’un des plus grands importateurs de pétrole brut au monde, trois semaines pour trouver des fournisseurs alternatifs. Pour M. Trump, la date limite du 27 août est une tentative de priver Moscou d’un revenu important pour son offensive en Ukraine. Les prélèvements de 25 % déjà en place doubleront à 50 % si l’Inde ne conclut pas un accord.

President Trump’s tariff war has inflicted almost $12 billion of losses on global automakers, the biggest hit they have faced since the pandemic. The scary reality: This may be just the beginning. Beyond the continuing cost of tariffs, automakers in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Europe face years of retooling and supply-chain tweaks to adjust to the new realities. This comes after they spent heavily to reshape factories for electric vehicles. The obvious responses to tariffs are to raise prices and move production to the U.S. But both are hard for carmakers to do quickly, potentially saddling them for years to come. Skeptics say the tariffs will only change the industry at the margins, with global automakers investing in the U.S. because of its healthy consumer economy, not its politics.

U.S. battery startup Lyten has agreed to buy most of bankrupt Swedish battery maker Northvolt, it said on Thursday, potentially offering a way back for the European company that was once seen as the region’s answer to rivals in Asia. Lyten, a Silicon Valley battery startup developing lithium-sulfur cells as a cleaner alternative to lithium-ion, is backed by Jeep-owner Stellantis and U.S. delivery services provider FedEx. The deal revives hopes for European battery independence after Northvolt – the continent’s potential rival to major Chinese electric vehicle battery makers – filed for bankruptcy in March, making it one of Sweden’s largest corporate failures and sparking a frantic push to find a buyer.

Western Midstream Partners said on Wednesday it will acquire Aris Water Solutions in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $1.5 billion as it aims to diversify operations in the Permian Basin. Shares of Aris Water Solutions jumped over 21% after the bell. Western Midstream — a natural gas-focused pipeline operator — has been seeking to create a leading water infrastructure platform in the top U.S. oilfield and diversify its customer base across West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. It said the acquisition would extend its existing footprint far to the north into Lea and Eddy Counties in New Mexico while providing access to incremental throughput opportunities across its natural-gas, crude-oil and produced-water businesses.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sued to block Edwards Lifesciences Corp's acquisition of JenaValve Technology Inc, saying in a lawsuit filed in Washington on Wednesday that the merger would decrease competition in the market for a device meant to treat a potentially fatal heart condition. Edwards and JenaValve are the only two companies in the United States currently conducting clinical trials on transcatheter aortic valve replacement devices, which are used to treat a condition called aortic regurgitation where the heart’s aortic valve does not close properly, the FTC said in its lawsuit. “The FTC is taking action to stop this anticompetitive deal and ensure that JenaValve and Edwards’ JC Medical subsidiary continue competing to innovate, expand treatment eligibility, and keep down costs,” Daniel Guarnera, head of the FTC’s bureau of competition, said in a statement.

Le jour même où Donald Trump annonçait des droits de douane de 100 % sur les semi-conducteurs, le gouvernement du Québec confirmait une aide de 100 millions de dollars à l’usine d’IBM de Bromont, la plus importante usine d’assemblage de semi-conducteurs pour des tiers clients en Amérique du Nord. La subvention, d’un montant maximal de 100,7 millions, sera versée sur cinq ans, a révélé mercredi le ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie. « Ce soutien du gouvernement du Québec à IBM […] est accordé pour que l’entreprise puisse acquérir des équipements et faire l’aménagement des espaces nécessaires pour l’assemblage avancé et le post-traitement des gaufres de 300 mm », détaille Jean-Pierre D’Auteuil, porte-parole du ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie, dans un courriel envoyé à La Presse.