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Alberta Investment Management Corp.’s interim chief executive officer could earn a multimillion-dollar compensation package after the provincial pension fund manager’s senior ranks were overhauled and its former chief investment officer received millions of dollars in severance pay. Ray Gilmour stepped in as interim CEO last November after a career as a senior public servant, following the Alberta government’s abrupt purge of AIMCo’s board and senior management. Mr. Gilmour was paid $241,869 in less than five months on the job, to March 31, according to AIMCo’s annual report released Friday. That included $210,796 in base salary, plus pension contributions and other pay. When prorated for a full fiscal year, Mr. Gilmour could be paid an annual base salary of more than $500,000.
The federal government says it has decided to rescind a digital services tax that led U.S. President Donald Trump to break off negotiations aimed at ending the damaging trade war between the United States and Canada. In a late Sunday announcement, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government said talks with the Trump administration would resume now that Canada has repealed the levy, which applied to U.S. tech giants such as Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Uber and Airbnb. Mr. Trump on Friday had announced the United States was “terminating all discussions on trade with Canada” in response to the digital services tax. First payments under the levy were due June 30 and the initial bill faced by big U.S. companies was expected to exceed US$2-billion, retroactive to 2022.
Le plus grand syndicat du secteur privé au Canada affirme que le lock-out et la grève de trois semaines chez DHL Express Canada prendront fin grâce à la ratification d’une nouvelle convention collective par les travailleurs. Unifor affirme que l’entente de quatre ans conclue avec l’entreprise de livraison a été ratifiée avec l’appui de 72 % des membres ayant participé au vote. L’entente touche plus de 2100 employés de DHL Express Canada qui travaillent comme chauffeurs routiers, coursiers, entrepôts et employés de bureau. « Je suis très fière des membres du comité national de négociation, qui ont maintenu fermement leur position et se sont battus pour obtenir le respect qu’ils méritaient », a déclaré Lana Payne, présidente nationale d’Unifor, dans un communiqué de presse publié samedi annonçant les résultats du vote de ratification.
Le président américain Donald Trump ne prévoit pas de prolonger la pause de 90 jours sur les droits de douane imposés à la plupart des pays au-delà du 9 juillet, date à laquelle la période de négociation qu’il a fixée expirera. Il a déclaré que son administration informera les pays concernés que les sanctions commerciales entreront en vigueur à moins qu’ils ne concluent des accords avec les États-Unis. Les lettres commenceront à être envoyées « assez rapidement » avant l’approche de l’échéance, a-t-il dit. « Nous regarderons comment chaque pays nous traite, s’il est bon ou s’il est moins bon. Pour certains pays, nous ne nous en soucierons pas, nous enverrons simplement un grand nombre de lettres », a affirmé M. Trump au cours d’une longue entrevue enregistrée vendredi et diffusée dimanche à l’émission Sunday Morning Futures de la chaîne Fox News.
BP chief executive Murray Auchincloss laughed off the question when asked this year if everything at the struggling oil company was up for sale. “I don’t know,” he responded, “no one ever comes with the right price.” Attempts to restore the fortunes of the 116 year-old group and preserve its independence received a boost this week when its UK rival Shell declared it had “no intention” of pursuing a deal that would have created a supermajor to rival ExxonMobil. Yet while Shell is now barred from making a new offer before Christmas, unless BP initiates talks or another suitor emerges, the respite for the embattled Auchincloss and his fellow executives is likely to be short lived.
Shell has not bid for BP and is not actively considering such a move, it said in a categorical denial on Thursday, adding it was bound by UK rules which mean such a statement bans it from bidding for BP for the next six months. The Wall Street Journal cited sources on Wednesday saying that Shell was in talks to acquire BP, in response to which Shell said no talks were taking place. Shell's CEO Wael Sawan has repeatedly said buying back Shell shares was a better use of money when asked about a potential bid for BP. "In response to recent media speculation Shell wishes to clarify that it has not been actively considering making an offer for BP and confirms it has not made an approach to, and no talks have taken place with BP with regards to a possible offer," Shell said in a statement.
Unilever is paying $1.5 billion (1.09 billion pounds) to buy men's personal care brand Dr Squatch from private-equity firm Summit Partners, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing sources. The deal was announced earlier this week by all three parties, without disclosing financial details. Unilever reiterated on Friday that it will not disclose the terms of the deal, while Summit Partners did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside of regular business hours. Reuters could not immediately verify the FT report.
China-founded fast-fashion retailer Shein plans to file a draft prospectus confidentially for its Hong Kong listing, marking a rare departure from the usual practice of companies making public filings of IPO documents, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. Shein aims to submit the filing confidentially as soon as this week, one of the sources said. A second source said the filing was expected to be made by Monday. Shein's confidential filing, if approved, would represent a waiver of one of the main listing rules by the Hong Kong exchange for one of the world's most closely-watched IPO candidates, and possibly the largest in the city this year, two of the sources said.
Barclays and former Chief Executive Jes Staley must face a lawsuit in Los Angeles claiming they defrauded shareholders about Staley's close ties to the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ruled on Wednesday that holders of Barclays' American Depositary Receipts plausibly alleged the defendants intended to mislead them to protect the bank's reputation and prop up its stock price. Investors said the fraud ran from July 22, 2019, about two weeks after Epstein's arrest, through October 12, 2023, and continued even after Barclays learned about an email cache showing Staley viewed Epstein as "family."
The Canadian manufacturing sector saw its largest decline in four years as the broader economy dipped slightly in April, Statistics Canada reported on Friday. The federal agency said the manufacturing sector contracted by 1.9 per cent, marking the largest drop since April 2021. Meanwhile, real gross domestic product for the month fell by 0.1 per cent, falling below Statistics Canada’s advance estimate. A preliminary estimate for May suggests another 0.1 per cent decline. The weak data supports economists’ expectations of a slowdown this year brought on by the U.S. trade war, which will increase pressure on the Bank of Canada to support the economy with interest rate cuts.
The Liberal government’s controversial major projects bill became law Thursday -- legislation Indigenous leaders have warned could lead to widespread protests and legal challenges if Ottawa doesn’t respect their rights and title. Bill C-5 gives Ottawa the power to fast-track projects meant to boost the national economy by side-stepping environmental protections and other legislation. An initial draft of the bill gave Ottawa the ability to sidestep the Indian Act, but that law was removed from the bill before its passage. The politically charged legislation has angered Indigenous and environmental groups, who criticize the government for rushing to grant itself sweeping new powers to speed up development.
Shell is holding early-stage talks to acquire rival BP in what would be the largest oil deal in a generation, people familiar with the matter said. Talks between company representatives are active, the people said, and BP is considering the approach carefully. Acquiring BP would put Shell on firmer footing to challenge larger competitors such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron. It would be a landmark combination of two so-called supermajor oil companies, a group of multinational behemoths that dominate the production of the world’s most important energy sources. Potential terms of any deal couldn’t be learned and a tie-up is far from certain, the people familiar with the matter warned.
The Trump administration Thursday asked McKinsey, BCG and several other firms with billions of dollars in federal contracts to justify their work—and suggest cost cuts. The General Services Administration sent a letter making the demands to leaders of about a half dozen consulting companies, according to a person familiar with the matter and a copy of the letter viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The new round of scrutiny is part of a broad review of government spending on consultants, tech providers and other contractors working with federal agencies. “Our objective is to critically evaluate which engagements deliver genuine value,” the GSA’s Josh Gruenbaum, who serves as commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, wrote to the firms Thursday.
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As the U.S. government takes big steps to usher cryptocurrency into mainstream finance, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges is urging the Canadian government to match and exceed those efforts, even as concerns mount. Coinbase Global Inc. is pushing hard to educate Canadian politicians about the moment in the hope of seeing someone in government champion the cause, said Lucas Matheson, who leads the company’s Canadian division. “We need to drive a sense of urgency in our government to take crypto seriously, and to embrace this technology, to integrate it into our traditional financial system,” he said in an interview. A key focus in that push is to bring more legitimacy to stablecoins, a type of crypto designed to keep a steady value by pegging it to a currency, often the U.S. dollar, and holding reserves to back it up.
Le gouvernement fédéral ordonne à un fabricant chinois de systèmes de caméras de surveillance de fermer ses portes au Canada et de quitter le pays pour des raisons de sécurité nationale. La ministre de l’Industrie, Mélanie Joly, a indiqué dans un message publié sur X que les ordonnances données à Hikvision Canada découlent d’un examen de sécurité nationale en vertu de la Loi sur Investissement Canada. Dans le cadre de cet examen, la ministre Joly a indiqué que le gouvernement avait étudié les renseignements et les preuves fournis par les services canadiens de sécurité et de renseignement. Elle a ajouté que le gouvernement avait finalement déterminé que permettre à l’entreprise de poursuivre ses activités au Canada porterait atteinte à la sécurité nationale du pays.
L’un des plus importants actionnaires de BRP vient de faire glisser à moins de 10 % sa participation en actions à droit de vote subalterne dans le constructeur de véhicules récréatifs de Valcourt. Turtle Creek Asset Management indique aux autorités que l’obligation de divulgation a été déclenchée le 31 mai. Le gestionnaire d’actifs torontois précise avoir vendu 310 475 actions de BRP au printemps, l’équivalent d’une quinzaine de millions de dollars d’actions. Turtle Creek a commencé juin avec 9,6 % des actions à droit de vote subalterne de BRP et n’est plus tenue de divulguer ses transactions sur le titre à moins que sa participation passe à nouveau de 10 % ou plus.
Over recent times, the acronym DEI has become inescapable—and corporate life is no exception. That’s obvious from the numbers, with research by WorldatWork finding that 83 percent of organizations have embraced diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Yet, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against DEI in 2023, and Americans lately electing a president fiercely opposed to the underlying ideology, corporate diversity schemes now look increasingly fragile. That’s certainly reflected by the many multinationals retreating from DEI, with some investors moving the same way.
The private equity owner of the former KPMG restructuring and advisory business Interpath is poised to appoint bankers to manage a sale of the company at a target valuation of about £800mn. Banks have this week begun pitching to HIG Capital to advise on the sale of Interpath Advisory, according to people familiar with the matter, kicking off a formal sale process for the former KPMG restructuring business. HIG will appoint banks to help it sell Interpath for about £800mn, four years after the private equity firm bought it from KPMG for about £400mn. Interpath struggled to make a profit following the acquisition, with pre-tax losses of £10.6mn in the year to March 2023 and a £10.2mn loss in 2022, which it attributed to set-up costs. But last year the company reported pre-tax profits of £3mn.
Unilever is paying $1.5bn for personal care brand Dr Squatch, as the consumer goods giant places another big bet on male grooming products, after its acquisition of razor subscription service Dollar Shave Club went awry. The FTSE 100 group announced on Monday that it had agreed to buy Dr Squatch from private equity firm Summit Partners for an undisclosed sum, to shift its portfolio into more upmarket, higher growth areas. Unilever agreed to pay $1.5bn, according to several people familiar with the details. US-based Dr Squatch makes “natural” soap, deodorants, shampoos and other toiletries that are marketed at men. Its products are sold directly to consumers through its own website and via third-party retailers.
China's Geely Holding, the main owner of Volvo Cars, Lotus and other auto brands, has appointed a new board chair at its key European investment company to replace founder Eric Li, it said late on Thursday. Danish business veteran Lone Fonss Schroder will take the helm at Geely Sweden Holding's board, which oversees the Chinese group's European businesses, Geely said in a statement. She replaces Li, also known as Li Shufu and Geely's top shareholder, who will remain on the board. Li is also the chair of Volvo Cars. "Schroder has been an active board member at Geely Sweden Holding for the past six years, playing an increasingly pivotal role in the group's European business development," a spokesperson for Geely Sweden told Reuters.
JetBlue Airways second-largest investor, Vladimir Galkin, is threatening to sell his near 10% stake in the struggling air carrier if the company's cost-cutting plan and other broader efforts fail to turn around its performance. Galkin, who lives in Miami, Florida, was a big winner from Gamestop's "meme stock" rally in 2021 and invested over $200 million in JetBlue between February and August 2024. The New York air carrier has been struggling with weakened travel demand, as the company withdrew its full-year forecast in April, saying it is unlikely to break even in 2025. Shares are down 43% year-to-date, while peers Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are down 17% and 18%, respectively. That's left Galkin sitting on a losing position.
Starbucks said on Thursday it had elected economist Dambisa Moyo and Marissa Mayer, CEO of an AI startup, to its board, effective June 25. These appointments come as the coffee giant doubles down on its "Back to Starbucks" strategy, a push to revitalize customer experience and partner engagement while leveraging digital tools. The company, which has been navigating a turnaround under CEO Brian Niccol, has also been working towards reaccelerating stores while paring down on promotions and discounts. Niccol said the new directors offer expertise in "technology, transformation, and global affairs" that will be key to the company's next phase of growth. With the additions, Starbucks' board now includes 11 members.
Ottawa is considering whether to follow in the footsteps of several European nations by forging a new defence co-production deal with Ukraine for military equipment, Defence Minister David McGuinty said Thursday. McGuinty said the idea is under “active consideration” by the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces and the government is looking at Denmark and France as potential models. Ukraine has become a world leader in combat drone technology over the course of its war with Russia, and countries such as the United Kingdom and Denmark have announced plans for co-operative equipment production projects with Kyiv.
Movie theatre company Cineplex Inc. says president and chief executive Ellis Jacob will retire at the end of next year. Cineplex board chair Phyllis Yaffe praised Jacob for his work in building the company and called him a giant in the industry. The company says Jacob will continue to lead Cineplex in the interim and help in the transition to new leadership. Jacob was appointed president and chief executive of Cineplex in 2003 when the Canadian assets of Lowes Cineplex Entertainment and Galaxy Entertainment Inc. were merged. Before his current role, Jacob was president and CEO of Galaxy Entertainment, which he co-founded in 1999.
CoreWeave is in talks to acquire Core Scientific CORZ, according to people familiar with the matter, after the AI company’s unsuccessful attempt to buy the digital-infrastructure firm about a year ago. A transaction could be finalized in the coming weeks, as long as the talks don’t hit any snags, the people said. The exact terms being discussed couldn’t be learned, but Core Scientific has been growing rapidly and would likely command a healthy premium. It has a market value of close to $3.7 billion, after its share price dropped roughly 15% year to date. Trading in Core Scientific’s stock was temporarily halted following publication of the Wall Street Journal story. Shares have since resumed trading and have surged more than 20%.
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