Quebec Task Force Recommends Safeguards Against Hostile Takeover Bids

Concurrently with the tabling of its budget on February 20, the Parti Québécois minority government released the Report of the Task Force on the Protection of Québec Businesses. In June 2013, Quebec's Minister of Finance Nicolas Marceau had mandated the Task Force to recommend measures that would enable Quebec companies to better protect themselves from unwanted takeover bids and foster the maintenance and development of head offices in the province.

The report sets out a series of recommendations regarding hostile takeover bids that would apply to public companies governed by the Business Corporations Act (Quebec) (QBCA), including amending the QBCA to allow for:

• voting rights that could increase the longer that shares are held, to give greater voting rights to long term holders;