Our prior Financial Services Updates have focused on proactive
and defensive measures that both lenders and borrowers can take in
light of the economic hardships brought on by the COVID-19
pandemic. This week we focus on a practical consideration that
borrowers are encountering in connection with financing
transactions: the inability to deliver original share certificates
on closing, and the implications this has on borrower's counsel
to provide a perfection by control opinion to the lender.
What is a Perfection by Control Opinion?
Often in secured financings, a borrower (among others) will
pledge the equity interests it owns to the lender as a form of
collateral. Ontario's Personal Property Security Act
(the "PPSA") requires that security
interests be perfected in order for a lender to obtain priority
over other creditors in respect of any such interest, and a
security interest in pledged equity may be perfected by
registration or by control pursuant to the Securit