On June 27, 2014, the British Columbia Securities Commission
published the reasons for its widely discussed decision
to cease-trade Augusta Resource's shareholder rights plan as of
July 15, 2014 – an unprecedented 156 days after the
commencement of HudBay Minerals' hostile take-over bid.
Prior to the BCSC's May 2, 2014 ruling, most securities lawyers
would have considered it unlikely that a Canadian regulator would
permit a rights plan to endure for even 90 days. Our prior comment
on the hearing and result can be found
here.
In its reasons, the BCSC panel confirmed that it was not
following the approach in proposed NI 62-105 or Quebec's proposed
alternative, but rather following established policy and
precedent in analyzing, not whether Augusta's
rights plan should be terminated, but when.
In setting this background, the panel took the opportunity to
reconcile the
BCSC's prior decision in Icahn – Lion's
Gate with the decisions of the ASC in Pulse Data and the
