On February 25, 2016, the Canadian Securities Administrators
("CSA") announced amendments to take-over bid rules in
Canada. The changes, as reflected in National Instrument 62-104
Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids (NI 62-104) and National Policy
62-203 Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids, are intended to enhance the
quality and integrity of the take-over bid regime while rebalancing
the dynamics among bidders, target company boards of directors and
target company shareholders during a take-over bid.
In a fundamental change, the new take-over bid rules will
require that all non-exempt take-over bids must meet a minimum
tender requirement of more than 50 per cent of the outstanding
securities that are subject to the bid (excluding securities owned
by the bidder itself or its joint actors). The current rules do not
have any minimum tender requirements.
