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ARTICLE · 10 MARCH 2014

Shareholder Activism In Canada - Looking Back And Looking Ahead

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Shareholder activism in Canada continued on the rise in 2013. Canadian corporate and securities laws are in several respects favorable to activists.

CanadaCorporate/Commercial Law
Kathleen Keller-Hobson
Kathleen Keller-Hobson
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Shareholder activism in Canada continued on the rise in 2013. Canadian corporate and securities laws are in several respects favorable to activists.  For instance, there is a higher threshold of 10% for early warning disclosure, a 5% shareholder can requisition at any time a shareholder meeting, staggered or classified boards are not permitted, slate voting is prohibited and certain proxy solicitation activities can be conducted without the requirement to prepare a dissident's proxy circular. 

About half of the proxy battles waged were won to some extent by the activists.  Given the underperformance of the mining sector, it is no surprise that it was subject to the most activism.

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