Corporate governance - Vigil

Le gouvernement américain pourrait repousser la date butoir du 9 juillet, à partir de laquelle des droits de douane plus élevés sur les importations en provenance de dizaines de pays devraient entrer en vigueur, a déclaré jeudi la Maison-Blanche. Interrogée sur ces surtaxes à l’importation, la porte-parole de la Maison-Blanche Karoline Leavitt a dit que le sursis « pourrait peut-être être prolongé ». « Mais c’est au président de prendre cette décision », a-t-elle ajouté. Au nom de la défense de la production nationale, le président américain Donald Trump a imposé, depuis son retour à la Maison-Blanche, des droits de douane sectoriels, comme sur l’acier et l’aluminium.  

The gulf between where the Federal Reserve projects interest rates will be by the end of 2026 and the more aggressive cutting financial markets expect by then is partly due to the expectation that U.S. central bank chief Jerome Powell will be replaced by somebody more dovish next year, investors said. They, however, cautioned against assuming that a change of guard at the Fed would necessarily deliver as much policy easing as markets and U.S. President Donald Trump expect. In new economic projections released last week, Fed policymakers penciled in three quarter-percentage-point cuts by December 2026. That’s two cuts short of the roughly 125 basis points of easing that fed funds futures suggest.

Le secrétaire américain au Trésor a assuré jeudi qu’un accord allait être conclu entre les pays du G7, permettant aux entreprises américaines d’être exemptées de certaines taxes. « Après des mois de discussions productives avec d’autres pays sur l’accord fiscal mondial de l’OCDE, nous allons annoncer un accord commun entre les pays du G7 qui défend les intérêts américains », a déclaré Scott Bessent dans un message sur le réseau social X. Près de 140 pays ont conclu en 2021 un accord sur l’imposition des multinationales, négocié sous les auspices de l’OCDE. Cet accord, critiqué par Donald Trump, comprend deux « piliers », le second fixant un taux d’imposition mondial minimum de 15 %.

The first astronauts in more than 40 years from India, Poland and Hungary arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday, ferried there by SpaceX on a private flight. The crew of four will spend two weeks at the orbiting lab, performing dozens of experiments. They launched Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. America’s most experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson, is the commander of the visiting crew. She works for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the chartered flight. Besides Whitson, the crew includes India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, a pilot in the Indian Air Force; Hungary’s Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer; and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert and one of the European Space Agency’s project astronauts on temporary flight duty.

Japan is driving Asia's M&A rebound in 2025 with a record $232 billion worth of deals in the first half, and bankers expect the trend to sustain fuelled by multi-billion dollar take-private arrangements, outbound investments and private equity activity. Management reforms to tackle chronic low valuations among Japanese firms are spurring a flurry of foreign and activist investor interest, while Japan's low interest rates - which support deals - mean the appetite for more deals remains strong, bankers say. The deals involving Japanese companies more than tripled in value in the first half, while in the same period Asia M&A value reached $650 billion, more than double the amount year-on-year, LSEG data showed.

Tile retailer Topps Tiles on Thursday named Alex Jensen as its new CEO and Mike Killick as its interim CFO and said its finance boss Stephen Hopson will leave the retailer and join pub group Marston's. Jensen replaces Rob Parker, who had said in January that he intended to retire after 18 years with the firm. Finance boss Hopson will leave on September 3 to take on the role of CFO at Marston's after more than four years at Topps Tiles. The management changes come at a time when Topps Tiles is refining its strategy to focus on expanding the online business, amid dissatisfaction from top investor MS Galleon, which in November raised concerns about long-term margin erosion.

Unifor and DHL Express Canada DHL-NE unchno change
have reached a tentative deal for a new collective agreement after months-long negotiations and a strike that lasted more than two weeks. Sivadas Santosh, lead negotiator for Unifor, said that union representatives and DHL spent most of Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning hashing out a deal, and managed to come to an agreement that the union was somewhat content with. “We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we got some big wage wins,” Mr. Santosh said. Unifor and DHL settled on a four-year agreement with a cumulative wage increase of 15.75 per cent. The agreement is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025, and workers will also get a $500 lump-sum bonus.

BlackRock is set to include private assets in its retirement plans as it expands into alternative investments, the world's largest asset manager said on Monday. The move marks a significant shift in how retirement products are structured, bringing traditionally illiquid and high-fee private market investments into mainstream retirement portfolios. The New York-based firm plans to offer a target-date fund - an age-based retirement investment that combines stocks, bonds and other assets - with allocations to private equity and private credit in the first half of 2026. Retirement money is a core business for BlackRock and accounts for more than half of the money the company manages.

Candy maker Mars' takeover of Pringles maker Kellanova was cleared by U.S. antitrust regulators on Wednesday, but their EU counterparts opened a full-scale investigation into the $36 billion deal, saying it could lead to price hikes. President Donald Trump's antitrust enforcers, including Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, have said they will not hesitate to block deals that harm competition in ways that hurt consumers, but also vowed not to stop deals that do not pose such concerns. "Our job is to determine whether there is a violation of American law that we can prove in court. And once we’ve concluded there is not, our job is to get out of the way," Bureau of Competition Director Daniel Guarnera said in an FTC statement announcing the early termination of its review of the deal. 

The heads of the European Union’s 27 member nations will meet Thursday in Brussels to discuss tougher sanctions on Russia, ways to prevent painful new U.S. tariffs, and how to make their voices heard in the Middle East conflicts. Most of the leaders will arrive from a brief but intense NATO summit where they pledged a big boost in defense spending, and papered over some of their differences with U.S. President Donald Trump. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join the EU summit by videoconference, after meeting Trump on Wednesday. U.S.-led NATO downgraded Ukraine from a top priority to a side player this week, but Russia’s war in Ukraine remains of paramount concern for the EU.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is committing that Canada — along with other NATO allies — will invest five per cent of GDP on defence by 2035, a pledge that will mean billions more in spending per year and the biggest increase since the Second World War. All NATO members – except for Spain, which secured an exemption – made the new commitment at the alliance’s annual leaders’ meeting in The Hague on Wednesday, with an agreement to review the target in 2029. The five per cent will be broken down into two parts, with the first 3.5 per cent aimed at core defence needs including jets and weapons, and the remaining 1.5 per cent on defence-related investments including infrastructure.

DHL Express Canada indique mercredi avoir conclu un accord provisoire avec son syndicat, ouvrant ainsi la voie à la reprise des activités de l’entreprise. Cet accord intervient après près d’un an de négociations. Les détails de l’entente ne seront divulgués qu’après la tenue d’un vote de ratification, prévu dans les prochains jours. DHL Express Canada a mis ses employés en lock-out le 8 juin et a temporairement interrompu ses activités vendredi dernier. La compagnie dit qu’elle « prévoit de lever la suspension du service avec effet immédiat » une fois l’accord ratifié.  

Black Lion Citgo Group, a consortium led by private equity firm Black Lion Capital Advisors, submitted a $8-billion all-cash bid for the parent of Venezuela-owned U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum as part of a court-organized auction of shares, the company said in a filing released on Wednesday. Following the selection of a $3.7 billion offer by Red Tree Investments as starting bid earlier this year, a court in Delaware received rival offers until June 18 for Citgo's parent PDV Holding as part of a bidding round aimed to pay up to 15 creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in Venezuela. The auction's winner is expected to be recommended by a court officer overseeing the sales process by July 2, with a final hearing set for August 18, according to a schedule recently updated by the court.

Le produit intérieur brut (PIB) de l’économie québécoise a progressé de 0,5 % au premier trimestre 2025 par rapport au trimestre précédent de fin d’année 2024, selon les données publiées jeudi par l’Institut de la statistique du Québec. Mais de l’avis d’économistes, ce sursaut de croissance au Québec en début d’année pourrait s’avérer de courte durée, avant que le plein impact du conflit commercial avec les États-Unis ne se fasse sentir. « La croissance du PIB au premier trimestre s’est accentuée par rapport au dernier trimestre de 2024, mais il ne faut pas y voir un signe de vigueur pour l’économie du Québec », prévient Daren King, économiste de la Banque Nationale.

Les investisseurs devraient savoir plus tôt que tard si les tentatives d’Alimentation Couche-Tard en vue d’acquérir Seven & i Holdings mèneront à une transaction, a avancé le patron de la chaîne arborant un hibou rouge. L’entreprise lavalloise courtise l’entreprise japonaise derrière la chaîne 7-Eleven depuis près d’un an. Après de nombreux rebondissements, les deux parties ont finalement annoncé la signature d’une entente de confidentialité à la fin du mois d’avril. Il s’agit d’une étape importante dans un processus d’acquisition. Le président et chef de la direction de Couche-Tard, Alex Miller, a dit que les discussions entre les deux entreprises se poursuivaient, lors d’une conférence avec les analystes, jeudi.

La Chine a annoncé vendredi avoir « confirmé » avec les États-Unis le cadre de leur accord commercial, assurant que Washington lèverait des restrictions à son encontre et que Pékin pourrait valider l’exportation de plus d’articles soumis à contrôle. Après des pourparlers à Genève (Suisse) en mai, Washington et Pékin étaient convenus de mettre sur pause leur guerre commerciale. Ils avaient accepté de réduire temporairement les droits de douane prohibitifs qu’ils imposaient sur leurs produits respectifs. La Chine s’était également engagée à alléger certaines contre-mesures non douanières. Mais des responsables américains ont ensuite accusé Pékin de violer l’accord, et notamment de traîner des pieds pour délivrer des licences d’exportation de terres rares.

Québec presse Ottawa de changer d’approche pour éviter de perdre des travailleurs étrangers temporaires dans le secteur manufacturier en région tout en plafonnant à 200 000 le nombre de résidents temporaires qui relèvent du fédéral. Le ministre québécois de l’Immigration, Jean-François Roberge, souhaite pouvoir conclure une entente avec Ottawa cet été. « Le maintien du niveau de travailleurs étrangers temporaires dans certaines régions est crucial pour de nombreuses entreprises confrontées à d’importants enjeux de main-d’œuvre », écrit-il dans une lettre, obtenue par La Presse, qu’il a fait parvenir récemment à la ministre fédérale de l’Immigration, Lena Metlege Diab, et à la ministre de l’Emploi et des Familles, Patty Hajdu.

Incyte shares rose Thursday after the drugmaker named Bill Meury its new CEO, effective immediately, to replace the retiring Hervé Hoppenot. Hoppenot, who is leaving his post after 11 years in charge, will remain as an advisor to Meury and a board member through the end of this year, Incyte said. Meury joins the firm after previously leading Anthos Therapeutics and Karuna Therapeutics, which both were acquired by other firms. Bristol Myers Squibb. "Bristol Myers Squibb Completes Acquisition of Karuna Therapeutics, Strengthening Neuroscience Portfolio.". "Incyte's track record for discovering innovative treatments for complex problems in human health is outstanding," Meury said. "My priority is to build upon our exceptional R&D and commercial capabilities to accelerate new product flow, drive sustainable growth and create value for all stakeholders."

Oil executives enlisted President Trump in fights against clean-car rules, drilling restraints and climate laws from New York to California. Now, they have won his support in their effort to quash Europe’s flagship environment rules. American oil chieftains and their lobbyists have urged Trump and his cabinet members to use ongoing trade talks with the European Union to push for a rollback of two major climate laws in the European Green Deal. Trump officials have pressed their EU counterparts to scale back those laws in recent negotiations, according to people familiar with the matter. The administration’s willingness to give priority to the interests of the oil executives—alongside those of several other industries—in a dispute with a vital trading partner shows how influential they have become in Trump’s second term.

Britain's competition regulator is considering whether Boeing's deal to acquire its former subsidiary Spirit AeroSystems could affect competition in the country or in other markets, it said on Thursday. The Competition and Markets Authority has not yet launched a formal investigation, but has invited comments from interested parties by July 15 to help inform a decision.Boeing spun off Spirit's core Wichita and Oklahoma plants in 2005, but in 2024 it agreed to buy back Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion in stock to streamline its operations and improve quality control, ending nearly two decades of independence of the world's largest standalone aerostructures company.

Japan is driving Asia's M&A rebound in 2025 with a record $232 billion worth of deals in the first half, and bankers expect the trend to sustain fuelled by multi-billion dollar take-private arrangements, outbound investments and private equity activity. Management reforms to tackle chronic low valuations among Japanese firms are spurring a flurry of foreign and activist investor interest, while Japan's low interest rates - which support deals - mean the appetite for more deals remains strong, bankers say. The deals involving Japanese companies more than tripled in value in the first half, while in the same period Asia M&A value reached $650 billion, more than double the amount year-on-year, LSEG data showed.

Vietnam has lifted the death penalty for eight crimes in legal reforms that may spare the life of a real estate tycoon imprisoned in the country’s largest financial fraud case. The legal reforms in Vietnam ended the death penalty for eight crimes, including trying to overthrow the government, damaging state infrastructure, making and selling fake medicine, starting wars, spying, drug trafficking, embezzlement, and taking bribes. Vietnamese lawmakers passed the reforms on Wednesday, according to state media. Truong My Lan, sentenced to death for her involvement in Vietnam’s largest financial fraud case, will be eligible to have her sentence reduced after the reforms, her lawyer said Thursday.

British oil giant Shell on Thursday denied media reports that it is in talks to buy rival BP. The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday said Shell was holding “early stage talks,″ to acquire BP, citing people familiar with the matter. “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 to the London Stock Exchange. Shell has repeatedly denied speculation that it was considering a takeover of its smaller rival BP, saying it was focused on streamlining and simplifying its own business.

Le géant des semiconducteurs Nvidia a battu un nouveau record en clôture à la Bourse de New York mercredi, en atteignant une capitalisation de plus de 3760 milliards de dollars, dépassant son précédent plus haut atteint en janvier. Dans un marché américain sans grand dynamisme, le titre de Nvidia a pris 4,33 % à 154,31 dollars. Ce bond lui permet de conforter sa place de première capitalisation boursière mondiale, reprise à Microsoft il y a quelques jours. Le titre de Nvidia a gagné plus de 14 % depuis la publication de ses résultats trimestriels à la fin de mois de mai, le groupe s’en étant mieux sorti que prévu malgré des restrictions américaines à l’export de ses puces vers la Chine.