The Corus/Shaw Communications/Catalyst battle – a battle over valuations, financial disclosure as well as the allocation of worth from the Corus minority – reached a predictable level now once the target rejected a deal for just about any rights offering where all shareholders would participate.
As a part of its information circular, Catalyst, which holds 321,000 Class B Corus shares, said “the opportunity to invest” must be open to all shareholders and not a limited number. (Corus has 84.5 million shares outstanding.)
Catalyst proposed to backstop a $263 million rights offering “on the identical terms” as the subscription receipt offering. With this deal, Corus sold 29.21 million receipts at $9 a share. Employing a private placement, the Shaw family bought 3.56 million shares also at $9.
Corus, whose shareholders gather 2-3 weeks to vote across the $2.65 billion transaction, rejected that proposal, arguing it “is both unworkable and self-interested.” Corus said the proposal would “needlessly increase risk for shareholders simply by entering in to a rights offering by having an opportunistic fund.”
In its rejection, Corus dismissed the Catalyst proposal as “hypothetical.”
THE Small , THE BIG
Both are building their businesses, both attract different areas and have now taken the main steps to achieve cause real progress.
At one result in the size is Montreal-based CoPower, “an online platform for clean energy investing,” which has closed its first green bond offering.
The fund achieved its target of $300,000 in the quantity of retail investors who participated 2-3 weeks after prospectus exemption rules got into effect in several the provinces. (Right before this, CoPower, formed in 2013, raised funds having an offering memorandum.)
Investors, who ranged in age from 24-87, committed for five many was instructed to undergo a two-step process – the very first, the registration way to see whether these were suitable, along with the second, an investment decision to find out when they wanted to participate. Investor contributions ranged from $5,000 to $20,000.
The fund, that is backed with a pool of green loans, offered Five percent along with over its term investors will get a mix of interest and principal.
Trish Nixon, someone at Co-Power is satisfied when using the way she said demonstrated the net strategy as well as the investment thesis. Too the capital was raised in 30 days, about half time the company had expected. Its not all investors received an allocation, meaning they’ll be head within the line for Co-Power’s next offering.
At another end of the scale is Foresters Insurance policy Co., which acquired Aegon Capital Management and Aegon Fund Management, two firms with $10 billion of assets under management. For Foresters, buying marks its entry in to the Canadian asset management business.
But Foresters isn’t any stranger to control over their money: before acquiring Aegon, the international financial services provider, had $34 billion under management. A U.S. based unit of Foresters manages that $34 billion. (Foresters’ Canadian assets were managed by an internal investment department.)
In 2011, Foresters requires a start when the acquired the privately-held First Investors Consolidated Corp. that’s asset management and insurance coverage operations. At that time, First Investors had US$7 billion under management, mostly in 27 mutual funds.
bcritchley@nationalpost.com
