Battles Will Continue In Active Year For Proxy Fights

The economic downturn is making proxy fights one of the stories of the year for 2009. Most battles have been in the resource sector so far, particularly with junior mining companies. But the scope of possible activity could widen as share prices in all sectors continue to struggle and shareholders become more aggressive.

Ogilvy Renault has been involved in five proxy fights since the beginning of January 2009. Our firm has represented dissident shareholder groups, corporations and independent directors in the dynamic context of a proxy battle. Because of the absolute devastation of market caps in 2008, we have seen a lot of activity in the first part of this year, and we believe that we are going to see a lot more.