Corporate governance - Vigil

Mazda Canada Inc. says president and chief executive David Klan will retire later this year. He will be succeeded by Amy Fleming, the company’s chief operating officer, effective Oct. 1. Klan, 33-year veteran of Mazda, held a broad range of executive positions with Japanese automaker globally before taking the top Canadian job in 2019. Fleming joined Mazda Canada in 2006 and has been senior director and chief operating officer since 2023. Based in Richmond Hill, Ont., Mazda Canada is responsible for the sales and marketing, customer service and parts support of Mazda vehicles in the country. It has a network of 163 retail stores across Canada

Russia signed an investment agreement with Myanmar on Friday that it said could open up new opportunities for Russian energy companies in the south Asian country. “We especially note the readiness of the Myanmar side to attract Russian companies to the development of offshore oil and gas fields,” Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said after signing the agreement in St Petersburg with Kan Zaw, Myanmar’s minister of investment and foreign economic relations. Russia said the deal would help accelerate projects including in Myanmar’s Dawei special economic zone, where a 660 MW coal-fired thermal power plant is being developed.

Le ministre fédéral des Finances, François-Philippe Champagne, a affirmé jeudi que le Canada ne suspendra pas la taxe sur les services numériques (TSN) imposée aux grandes entreprises technologiques, qui doit entrer en vigueur le 30 juin. La pression s’intensifie sur Ottawa pour qu’il suspende cette taxe en prévision des négociations commerciales avec les États-Unis. M. Champagne a déclaré aux journalistes que le projet de loi avait été adopté par le Parlement et que le Canada allait de l’avant avec la taxe. Cette taxe frappera des entreprises comme Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber et Airbnb, avec un prélèvement de 3 % sur les revenus des utilisateurs canadiens.

Le PDG d’Olymel joint sa voix à celles des gens d’affaires qui réclament une révision des politiques gouvernementales en matière d’immigration. « Ce qui me choque le plus, c’est quand les règles du jeu changent en milieu de partie », a plaidé Yanick Gervais, jeudi, devant la Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropolitain (CCMM). En fonction des règles actuelles, selon lui, environ 200 travailleurs étrangers temporaires d’Olymel risquent de devoir quitter l’entreprise dans les prochains mois. À titre comparatif, l’usine Olymel d’Anjou, dont la fermeture a été annoncée plus tôt ce mois-ci, emploie actuellement 140 employés. Depuis septembre 2024, les restrictions gouvernementales incluent la réduction de 20 % à 10 % du nombre de travailleurs étrangers temporaires autorisés dans les postes à bas salaire.

Une entente signée par La Baie d’Hudson pour la vente d’une vingtaine de baux à une entrepreneure britanno-colombienne s’est heurtée à un obstacle majeur, comme le révèlent de nouveaux documents judiciaires : les propriétaires qui détiennent les biens immobiliers s’opposent massivement à son emménagement. Le document déposé jeudi provient d’Alvarez & Marsal Canada, un contrôleur judiciaire nommé pour aider La Baie à se protéger contre ses créanciers. Le document indique que les propriétaires représentant 23 baux sur un groupe de 25 acquis par Ruby Liu n’approuveront pas le plan et « s’opposeront à toute cession forcée future »

Google faced a potential setback on Thursday as an adviser to Europe's highest court sided with EU antitrust regulators in the company's fight against a record 4.34 billion euro ($4.98 billion) fine levied seven years ago. The European Commission in its 2018 decision said Google had used its Android mobile operating system to block rivals. A lower tribunal endorsed the EU finding in 2022 but trimmed the fine to 4.1 billion euros, prompting Google to appeal to Europe's top court. Advocate-General at the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Juliane Kokott, in her non-binding opinion, advised the court to dismiss Google's appeal and confirm the reduced fine set by the lower tribunal. "The legal arguments put forward by Google are ineffective," she said. Kokott dismissed Google's argument that regulators should compare Google with a rival in assessing the situation.

European regulators are poised to launch an antitrust investigation into Mars’s $35.9bn acquisition of Pringles and Pop-Tarts maker Kellanova, according to people briefed on the decision. The privately held food and petcare company’s agreement to buy its US peer was one of last year’s biggest M&A deals. The companies have previously said they expected the transaction to close by June 30. Mars, known for sugary snacks such as M & M’s, Snickers and Skittles, had not offered remedies to address European Commission concerns about high market shares identified in a preliminary review of the acquisition, the people said. Poul Weihrauch, chief executive of Virginia-based Mars, which is one of the world’s largest family-owned businesses, previously has said he does not anticipate major regulatory scrutiny because the Mars and Kellanova businesses were complementary.

Just weeks after shutting all its department stores across Canada, Hudson’s Bay Co. is seeking to shed its historic name. The company will return to court next Monday seeking approval to change the names of its various corporate entities as part of a $30-million deal to sell its intellectual property to Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. Corp. Under the conditions of that deal, which received court approval on June 3, Hudson’s Bay must change its name within 45 days of the transaction closing. Court documents filed this week did not reveal the new name but specified that it must be “dissimilar to, and cannot be confused with ‘Hudson’s Bay Company,’ ‘Hudson’s Bay,’ or ‘HBC’” or any other variations on the Bay name.

Burgundy offre des services de gestion discrétionnaire de placements à des clients privés, des fondations, des fonds de dotation, des régimes de retraite et des bureaux de gestion de patrimoine familial. En date du 31 mai, elle gérait environ 27 milliards d’actifs. Dans le cadre de cet accord, Burgundy sera englobé par BMO Gestion de patrimoine. Le chef de la direction de Burgundy, Robert Sankey, continuera de diriger l’entreprise. Les cofondateurs de Burgundy, Tony Arrell et Richard Rooney, resteront également en poste. La transaction devrait être finalisée d’ici la fin de l’année, sous réserve des conditions de clôture habituelles, notamment des approbations réglementaires.

Singapore-based Grab's plan to acquire Indonesia's GoTo to create a dominant Southeast Asian ride hailing and food delivery company has run into regulatory hurdles, three sources said, casting a cloud over a potential deal. Reuters reported in May Nasdaq-listed Grab was looking to strike a deal to buy smaller rival GoTo in the second quarter and had hired advisers to work on the proposed acquisition. A deal could value GoTo at around $7 billion. The two companies now need more time to agree on a deal after the Indonesian government proposed some conditions for the plan to go through, said the three sources, who have knowledge of the deal discussions. The Indonesian government is examining how the potential merger would impact job welfare and market competition in Southeast Asia's biggest and most populated economy, said two of the sources.

A SpaceX rocket being tested in Texas exploded Wednesday night, sending a dramatic fireball high into the sky. The company said the Starship “experienced a major anomaly” at about 11 p.m. while on the test stand preparing for the tenth flight test at Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site at the southern tip of Texas. “A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,” SpaceX said in a statement on the social-platform X. CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX said there were no hazards to nearby communities. It asked people not to try to approach the site. The company said it is working with local officials to respond to the explosion.

Canada should roll back restrictions on foreign ownership for domestic airlines, a new report from the Competition Bureau recommends. Released Thursday, the report on the air travel industry advocates for a “leverage (of) international capital and experience to strengthen domestic competition,” including through raised ownership caps for investors outside Canada. The bureau recommends raising the cap for single-investor foreign ownership to 49 per cent for airlines in general, up from 25 per cent, and to 100 per cent for “domestic-only Canadian airlines,” a move that would involve creating a “new class of airline” that it says has proven successful in Australia’s air travel industry.

Home Depot has made an offer for building-products distributor GMS, kicking off a potential bidding war between the home-improvement giant and serial dealmaker Brad Jacobs, according to people familiar with the matter. The exact price Home Depot has privately discussed paying for GMS couldn’t be determined. On Wednesday, Jacobs’ QXO QXO 4.80%increase; green up pointing triangle said it submitted an unsolicited proposal to buy GMS for about $5 billion, offering $95.20 a share in cash. Investors had been speculating in recent weeks that GMS, a building-products and tool supplier for consumers and contractors, would be gobbled up, bidding the stock up to $81.01. That gave it a market value of roughly $3.1 billion.

Taiwan’s Foxconn and U.S. artificial intelligence chips maker Nvidia NVDA-Q are in talks to deploy humanoid robots at a new Foxconn factory in Houston that will produce Nvidia AI servers, two sources familiar with the matter said. This would be the first time that an Nvidia product will be made with the assistance of humanoid robots and would be Foxconn’s first AI server factory to use them on a production line, the sources said. A deployment, expected to be finalized in the coming months, would mark a milestone in the adoption of the human-like robots that promises to transform manufacturing processes.

Postes Canada a annoncé avoir conclu une entente contractuelle avec son deuxième plus grand syndicat, tandis que les négociations se poursuivent avec le Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses des postes (STTP). La société d’État affirme que la nouvelle convention collective avec l’Association canadienne des maîtres de poste et adjoints (ACMPA) survient à la suite de 18 mois de négociations, soit la même durée que celle des discussions avec le STTP. Le service postal précise que l’entente avec l’ACMPA couvre environ 8500 employés, qui gèrent principalement des bureaux de poste dans les régions rurales du Canada. La nouvelle entente prévoit une augmentation salariale de 11 % sur trois ans, rétroactive au début de 2024, incluant une augmentation de 6 % la première année, de 3 % en 2025 et de 2 % en 2026.

Les producteurs canadiens d’aluminium se réjouissent qu’Ottawa reconnaisse enfin les différences entre les marchés de l’acier et de l’aluminium avec des mesures adaptées à chaque industrie, comme les deux groupes de travail distincts qui aideront le gouvernement dans ses décisions. L’amélioration de la surveillance des importations d’aluminium pour éviter le dumping est aussi saluée. « L’industrie canadienne de l’aluminium a pleinement soutenu l’utilisation de la disposition relative au pays de fusion et de coulée afin de lutter contre les risques de commerce déloyal dans l’espace commercial de l’Accord Canada–États-Unis–Mexique », a commenté Jean Simard, président et chef de la direction de l’Association canadienne de l’aluminium.

Le G7 n’est pas tout à fait dans le coma. Malgré le désintérêt de Donald Trump, ses membres ont encore des intérêts convergents. Par exemple face à la Chine. Et c’est un des espoirs de Mark Carney pour mettre fin aux mesures tarifaires des États-Unis. Le premier ministre aimerait rétablir l’amitié avec son voisin, en lui rappelant qu’ils partagent un ennemi commercial, la Chine. Mais pour M. Trump, tout le monde est un ennemi. Y compris les ennemis de ses ennemis. Jeudi, M. Carney a annoncé qu’il limiterait les importations d’acier. Il menace aussi de hausser les droits de douane aux États-Unis si un accord n’est pas conclu d’ici le 21 juillet. Son rêve : revenir au monde de 2024. Ce n’était pas l’harmonie. Mais au moins, les conflits étaient intelligibles.

Billionaire Brad Jacobs' new building-products distributor QXO made an offer on Wednesday to acquire GMS for about $5 billion in cash and said it will proceed with a hostile takeover if the company's management rejects the offer. This is Jacobs's second hostile takeover threat in the building sector this year. The move is part of his plan to turn QXO into a $50 billion revenue building-products distributor within a decade. The offer comes three months after QXO clinched an $11 billion deal to buy Beacon Roofing Supply, ending a prolonged takeover battle for the roofing company and significantly expanding its footprint in the U.S. and Canada. An acquisition of GMS would expand QXO's market from roofs into house interior materials, including drywall. QXO’s proposal is still technically in the friendly phase, but Jacobs said that if GMS’s board did not accept the offer by June 24, QXO was prepared to bypass management.

The Spanish government is set to decide next week on whether to impose additional conditions on BBVA's 14 billion euro($16.23 billion) hostile bid for smaller rival Sabadell before giving it its approval. Madrid, which has opposed the deal since it was announced in April last year because of fears over job losses, said last month that ministers would examine the offer, a rare move which drew a rebuke from the European Union. The complex, lengthy process may act as a test whether European bank M&A deals, several of which were announced this year, can get over the line. In the latest twist, Sabadell this week said it had received expressions of interest in its British unit, TSB, which analysts say could be a defensive move to ward off BBVA. Below are some of the likely next steps in what would be Spain's second-biggest banking deal by assets.

European regulators are poised to launch an antitrust investigation into Mars’s $35.9bn acquisition of Pringles and Pop-Tarts maker Kellanova, according to people briefed on the decision. 

The privately held food and petcare company’s agreement to buy its US peer was one of last year’s biggest M&A deals. The companies have previously said they expected the transaction to close by June 30.

Mars, known for sugary snacks such as M & M’s, Snickers and Skittles, had not offered remedies to address European Commission concerns about high market shares identified in a preliminary review of the acquisition, the people said. 

Quebec’s largest pension fund manager is rebranding its revamped real estate arm, dropping the names of subsidiaries Ivanhoé Cambridge and Otéra Capital Inc. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which manages $473-billion, has been restructuring its real estate operations since the start of 2024, bringing the operations of investor and developer Ivanhoé and commercial real estate debt provider Otéra in house. The two-year integration plan was aimed at saving the Caisse $100-million annually and moved investment teams from both subsidiaries over to the Caisse last year. It was also intended to smooth governance and strengthen business relationships by eliminating duplication.

Global equity IPOs have plunged this year, weighed down by heightened business uncertainty from U.S. tariffs, elevated market volatility and higher interest rates that have raised funding costs and made listings less appealing for issuers. According to LSEG data, as of June 17, global IPO volume has declined about 9.3% year-on-year to $44.3 billion, the lowest level in nine years.
Graphic shows global IPO proceeds falling sharply
U.S. IPO volumes dropped 12% to $12.3 billion, while Europe saw a sharper 64% decline to $5.8 billion. In contrast, Asia-Pacific IPO volumes have risen 28% to $16.8 billion so far this year. President Donald Trump's tariffs, which included a 10% blanket levy plus targeted duties on U.S. trading partners, re-ignited tensions in April. Despite his subsequent pause and negotiations on trade and tariffs, businesses globally are uncertain about demand and investment.

Canada’s competition watchdog is calling on Ottawa to boost competition in the airline industry with sweeping changes that include allowing foreign-owned carriers to fly domestic routes and phasing out restrictions on foreign ownership. The recommendations are among 10 the Competition Bureau of Canada makes in a new market study, to be released on Thursday morning. To increase customers’ choices in Canada’s highly concentrated airline industry, the report also recommends the government: Remove the Transport Minister’s ability to ignore antitrust findings when reviewing airline takeovers and partnerships; Remove restrictions that prevent smaller airports from offering international flights; Expand airports in the North and remote-specific policies that foster competition.