Corporate governance - Vigil

BlackRock has acquired ElmTree Funds, a US-based real estate investment firm managing $7.3bn in assets, in a move that expands its private markets platform following the acquisition of HPS Investment Partners. The deal, primarily paid in stock with additional consideration based on future performance, will see ElmTree integrated into BlackRock’s new Private Financing Solutions (PFS) platform. This platform was recently formed through the combination with HPS. ElmTree focuses on net-lease real estate assets, especially build-to-suit properties leased to single tenants. The integration aims to scale BlackRock’s real estate offering and deliver more tailored investment solutions.

rance's Capgemini has agreed to buy technology outsourcing firm WNS for $3.3 billion in cash to expand the range of AI tools it offers for companies, the IT services group said on Monday. The deal equips Capgemini to create a consulting business service focused on helping companies improve their processes and cost efficiency with the use of artificial intelligence, namely generative AI and agentic AI, which it expects to attract significant investments. The purchase price translating to $76.50 per WNS share represents a 17% premium compared to their last closing price on July 3 and does not include WNS's financial debt, Capgemini said. Its interest in India-based WNS, whose services include business process outsourcing and data analytics, was first reported by Reuters in April.

CoreWeave will buy crypto miner Core Scientific in an all-stock deal valued at about $9 billion, it said on Monday, as AI infrastructure firms race to secure the energy and data center capacity needed to power surging demand. Bitcoin miners' energy-intensive sites and power contracts, built during the crypto boom, have emerged as prime targets for AI companies expanding their computing infrastructure. The deal will help in the immediate elimination of more than $10 billion of cumulative future lease overhead to be paid for existing contractual sites over the next 12 years, CoreWeave said. The offer values Core Scientific at $20.40 per share, representing a premium of around 66% to the stock's closing price before reports of deal talks surfaced in late June.

Dealmaking slumped in the second quarter to the lowest level in a decade, excluding the early months of the pandemic, as Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs extended a run of uncertainty that has forced dealmakers to pull back from all but the largest takeovers. The total number of deals announced in the three months to June 30 fell to about 10,900, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group. Excluding the second quarter of 2022, when Covid-19 lockdowns upended global markets and just 10,600 deals were unveiled, the figure was the lowest since the start of 2015. Dealmakers had initially expected that a more conservative White House would pull back on regulation and unleash a wave of takeovers.

The premiers of Alberta and Ontario will meet in Calgary today to sign two new memorandums of understanding. Danielle Smith’s office says she and Doug Ford will sign agreements on energy priorities, trade and interprovincial co-operation. The pair were together at a roundtable in Calgary on Sunday, with Ford tweeting that they discussed how to build new pipelines, as well as rail lines to export Canadian critical minerals and energy. Smith bumped into Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Calgary Stampede on Saturday. When she told Carney about the documents she and Ford would be signing, she told him it would be “so great if we didn’t have net-zero (carbon) rules.”

A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is dismissing moves by the federal government and Canada’s premiers to break down internal trade barriers as little more than “political theatre.” It lands just ahead of the country’s internal trade ministers meeting in Quebec City this week, where they are expected to talk about their next steps as they rush to remove rules hampering cross-provincial trade. Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed throughout the spring election to forge “one Canadian economy” with the premiers by eliminating internal barriers to trade and labour mobility in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Apple took a challenge against EU regulators to Europe’s second highest court on Monday after they fined it 500 million euros (US$587-million) earlier this year for breaching landmark rules aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech. The European Commission in a decision in April said the iPhone maker’s technical and commercial restrictions that prevent app developers from steering users to cheaper deals outside the App Store breached the Digital Markets Act. Apple, which had previously said it would seek legal redress, filed its lawsuit on Monday, the deadline for doing so. “Today we filed our appeal because we believe the European Commission’s decision - and their unprecedented fine - go far beyond what the law requires,” the company said in a statement.

Royal Gold Inc. is bidding $5-billion for Vancouver-based Sandstorm Gold Ltd. and Horizon Copper Corp. in a pair of friendly takeovers meant to create one of North America’s largest gold royalty companies. Early Monday, Denver-based Royal announced a US$3.5-billion, all-share bid for Sandstorm and a separate $196-million cash bid for Horizon. Sandstorm is the largest shareholder in Horizon, with a 34-per-cent stake. Royal, Sandstorm and Horizon are royalty companies that provide upfront financing to miners in return for the right to a percentage of production from a mine, for the life of the project. The transactions, which Royal called Project Helix, gives Royal significantly more geographic diversity and lessens the company’s reliance on any one gold mine.

La présidente de la Commission européenne Ursula von der Leyen a eu un « bon échange » téléphonique dimanche avec le président américain Donald Trump sur la question des droits de douane, a indiqué un de ses porte-parole. « Ils ont eu un bon échange », a affirmé Stefan de Keersmaecker lundi, assurant « que des efforts étaient toujours en cours à différents niveaux » pour parvenir à un accord commercial avec les États-Unis. L’exécutif européen, chargé de négocier au nom des 27 États membres de l’UE, travaille d’arrache-pied pour esquiver les lourds droits de douane que Donald Trump menace d’imposer à leurs produits d’ici le 9 juillet.

Thoma Bravo has agreed to acquire Olo, a restaurant software provider, in a $2bn all-cash deal that values the company at $10.25 per share. The offer represents a 65% premium to Olo’s share price prior to reports of a potential sale, according to Bloomberg.
Founded in 2005 and based in New York, Olo supports more than 750 restaurant brands, including PF Chang’s and Denny’s. Its backers include notable investors such as Danny Meyer and The Raine Group. Olo’s board has unanimously approved the transaction, citing both the significant premium and the long-term value it offers shareholders. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. This agreement comes as private equity-led M&A activity gains momentum, with $580bn in transactions year-to-date — up nearly 12% compared to the same period last year.

We have many labels for today’s unprecedented challenges — VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) and BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear and incomprehensible) being among them. How might boards proceed in these unprecedented times? Normally (and appropriately), we have kept politics and government policy direction out of the boardroom. But these are not normal times. Our duty as board members is to help foretell the future and its implications for our businesses. Assuming everything will work out as it did in prior administrations and that nothing transformative will occur may reduce our stress. Nevertheless, doing so will fail the companies we serve. It’s time for fresh and broader thinking in the boardroom. Here are five steps to consider.

Once again, organizations are facing unprecedented challenges — this year in the form of U.S. federal policy shifts. To understand how organizations are responding real-time, WTW conducted a series of three, 48-hour pulse surveys of our North American clients in March and April. The majority of responding organizations (90%) were U.S.-based, with between 90 and more than 200 participants across all industries providing responses to the three surveys.

A European insurance group created by Apollo Global Management has struck a £5.7bn takeover of UK retirement savings group Pension Insurance Corporation, a deal that would further push the US alternative assets giant into the UK insurance market. Athora, a European-based insurer minority owned by Apollo, has announced an acquisition of PIC from a consortium of investors, including CVC Capital and Reinet Investments, a vehicle backed by South African billionaire Johann Rupert. The deal is the largest in Athora’s history and will push the insurer, which operates in countries including Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, into the UK, the biggest retirement market in Europe.

Britain's Octopus Energy is close to hiring bankers to oversee a 10-billion-pound ($13.7 billion) separation and stake sale of its technology arm Kraken Technologies, Sky News reported on Saturday, citing sources familiar with the matter. A minority stake in Kraken of up to 20% is expected to be sold to external shareholders to help validate the technology platform's valuation, the report said. The report added that the demerger, expected within the next year, would see Octopus Energy's existing investors given shares in the newly independent Kraken business. A 10-billion-pound valuation for Kraken implies that the whole group, including its retail supply business, is worth around 15 billion pounds or more, the report said, citing a source.

Nestle's recent announcement that Chairman Paul Bulcke will step down followed rising investor unease over the food group's share price, the tenure of previous CEO Mark Schneider and concerns its corporate governance model was out of date, investors told Reuters. Support for Bulcke, 70, was ebbing away due to doubts about Nestle's recovery after the pandemic, when sales volumes flagged in 2023 as the world's largest packaged food maker increased prices to offset rising raw material costs, four Nestle investors said. Sales volumes flagged in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic as raw material costs spiked and Nestle hiked prices sharply to compensate. There was also discontent over Bulcke's loyalty to Schneider during that tough period, as well as Nestle's practice of making former CEOs chairmen, they said. Schneider was eventually ousted last August and replaced by Nestle veteran Laurent Freixe.

From Rio Tinto and Novo Nordisk to Stellantis and Unilever, this year a steady stream of European-listed companies have announced the abrupt exits of their chief executives as tensions with their boards spill out into the open. On paper, boards are doing their jobs. Faced with geopolitical upheaval, economic volatility and technological disruption, they are stepping in earlier, intervening faster and showing less tolerance for underperformance.  Korn Ferry found that half of all CEO successions in Europe and the Middle East last year were unplanned — up from 43 per cent the year before. Dissatisfaction with strategy execution and the pace of performance improvement were the most common triggers.

Après une déroute spectaculaire en avril, les marchés boursiers ont rebondi de façon inattendue et la plupart des principaux indices se trouvent aujourd’hui en territoire positif comparativement au début de l’année. Certains sont même à un sommet historique. Bilan des six premiers mois de 2025. La Bourse canadienne n’a pas été en reste. L’indice S&P/TSX s’est apprécié de 8,6 % depuis le début de l’année. Les sous-indices des matériaux (29,2 %) et de la consommation discrétionnaire (12,6 %) ont réalisé les meilleures performances. Seul le sous-indice des soins de santé (-7,3 %) montre une performance négative. Les banques ont bien fait avec une hausse de 9,1 %, principalement la Banque TD qui a réalisé un gain spectaculaire de 30,9 %.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. will impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on any countries aligning themselves with the “Anti-American policies” of the BRICS group of developing nations, whose leaders kicked off a summit in Brazil on Sunday. With forums such as the G7 and G20 groups of major economies hamstrung by divisions and the disruptive “America First” approach of the U.S. president, the BRICS is presenting itself as a haven for multilateral diplomacy amid violent conflicts and trade wars. In a joint statement from the opening of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro released on Sunday afternoon, the group warned the rise in tariffs threatened global trade, continuing its veiled criticism of Trump’s tariff policies.

Ukraine and five other European countries are leaving an international treaty that bans the production and use of landmines. Nearly 30 years ago, Canada played an integral part in the creation of what’s known as the Ottawa Treaty, which is starting to unravel in the face of Russian aggression. “Right now, Ukraine is becoming, without a doubt, the most corrupted part of the world in terms of the number of landmines being planted, certainly by Russia and by Ukraine itself,” former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy said in an interview with CTVNews.ca. “And I think if these other Baltic countries continue on their borders, you’re going to have what will clearly be an area of huge risk to civilians for the next half-century.”

Canadian legal software maker Dye & Durham’s second biggest investor, Plantro Ltd, has launched a proxy fight to elect new directors and is pushing for a sale of the company, according to documents seen by Reuters. Plantro Ltd, which owns 11 per cent of Dye & Durham, told the company on Monday that it nominated 3 director candidates to the 7-person board and that it requisitioned a special meeting where shareholders would vote on the nominees. Its nominees would bring expertise in buying and selling companies, capital allocation, operations, technology and governance, Plantro said.

L’administration américaine compte appliquer à partir du 1er août les vastes droits de douane annoncés début avril, puis rapidement suspendus le temps de négocier avec l’ensemble des pays, mais, à quelques jours de la date butoir, seuls deux accords ont officiellement été conclus. Le ministre américain du Trésor, Scott Bessent, a déclaré dimanche matin que faute d’accord avec Washington dans les prochains jours, les droits de douane – pouvant atteindre 50 % – entreraient en vigueur le 1er août. Le 9 juillet avait auparavant été fixé comme date butoir, jusqu’à ce que le président Donald Trump dise vendredi, sans développer, que les pays concernés ne commenceraient à payer qu’à partir du 1er août.

Les nouveaux propriétaires de Lion Électrique n’ont eu qu’à mettre 6 millions sur la table afin de racheter le constructeur d’autobus scolaires électriques, a appris La Presse. Cela confirme qu’il ne reste rien pour ses créanciers, une liste sur laquelle figurent les contribuables québécois. Gardée secrète devant la Cour supérieure du Québec, qui supervisait la restructuration judiciaire en vertu de la Loi sur les arrangements avec les créanciers des compagnies (LACC), l’information a récemment été dévoilée dans un document judiciaire. La somme est inférieure au financement intérimaire de 16 millions obtenu par Lion en se plaçant à l’abri de ses créanciers, le 18 décembre dernier.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers has warned Hugo Boss that it will vote against dividend payments and said the luxury German brand, in which it has a stake, should focus on expanding the business instead. The UK retailer, which first started buying shares in Hugo Boss in 2020 as part of a wider strategy to invest in seemingly undervalued brands, said Hugo Boss “should not pay any dividend at this time” in a statement published late on Thursday. Frasers added that the German fashion house should use the capital for “other value-enhancing measures” that would ultimately lead to long-term growth and financial flexibility.

Directors have traditionally focused on financial oversight, risk management and strategic planning. Now they must have an innovation mindset and knowledge to support it. Innovation is moving at such warp speed, it has become the defining factor in an increasingly competitive global business landscape. It drives advantage, growth and resilience. It underpins a company’s pursuit of its sustainability goals. It is a central governance priority.

The $33bn privatisation of a major Toyota supplier has been called out as a “study in opacity” by an investment industry group, reviving criticism that the transaction “risks squandering” Japan’s efforts to improve corporate governance. The Hong Kong-based Asian Corporate Governance Association, which represents investors that together manage more than $40tn of assets, released a searing attack on Thursday of Japan’s biggest management buyout, saying it would “serve as a referendum on the credibility of Japan’s corporate governance revolution”. Toyota Industries last month accepted a ¥16,300 ($113) a share offer led by Toyota Fudosan, a privately held real estate company, and Akio Toyoda, chair of Toyota Motor, the world’s largest carmaker by sales.