Topic Results: Institutional investors

December 4, 2024

Private market investors neglect risk in rush for returns

The recent scandal involving Adani Group and Canadian pension fund CPDQ exposes flagging standards as investors rush for private markets across emerging markets in Asia. […] François Dauphin, who leads the Montreal-based Institute for governance of private and public organisations, identifies a concerning trend. He notes the investors’ due dilligence is suffering under pressure to […]

November 21, 2024

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, former Caisse execs facing charges in the United States

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec opened an office in India in 2016, betting that the country’s favourable demographics would fuel returns in renewable energy and transportation infrastructure. Now, the Canadian pension giant has become entangled in what U.S. authorities call “an elaborate scheme” to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes in […]

May 23, 2024

Best Caisse Scenario

A debate is raging over whether Canada’s pension plans invest enough of their vast assets at home. And Charles Emond – the man charged with producing big returns while contributing to Quebec’s economy – is at the centre of it all. Charles Emond leans into the microphone, ready to act out a perennial ritual for […]

May 1, 2023

South African prison scandal raises concerns over Caisse’s G4S connections

[…] Even before this latest scandal, questions were being raised about why a Canadian corporate pillar like the Caisse would jump into the security industry and, later, associate itself with a company like G4S, which has a checkered recent history. Critics say the pension giant, which administers the retirement funds for thousands of public-sector employees, has no business […]

May 2, 2022

Caisse bows out of Montreal light rail project

Canadian pension fund giant Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is stepping away from a proposed new $10-billion light rail line in eastern Montreal after encountering seemingly insurmountable difficulties with the design of the downtown portion of the project. Quebec and Montreal will take over leadership of the venture, the two governments said in […]

December 5, 2021

Couche-Tard’s end of special voting rights will be closely watched by critics, defenders of dual-class share structures

n will set this week on the special voting rights held by the four founders of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., leaving the Canadian convenience store giant more exposed to investor pressure than ever before. Its fate will be closely watched by both critics and defenders of dual class share structures. Laval, Que.-based Couche-Tard is one of […]

November 17, 2020

Corporate Purpose, ESG, stakeholders: what’s the deal?

Since the publication in 1932 of Berle and Means’ The Modern Corporation and Private Property, “capitalist” societies have been engaged in a forlorn quest for an appropriate definition of the role, justification and “raison d’être” of large corporations. Except for the legal fiction of shareholders as owners, corporations of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, were […]

January 10, 2020

The Angels of Market Efficiency

Mr. Ben Axler, Chief Investment Officer and founder of Spruce Point Capital responds (Financial Post, December 17th, 2019) to my article on short sellers of his kind (Financial Post, December 13th, 2019). He trots out the worn-out argument that short sellers only reveal the sordid truths hidden in the bosom of corporations. In short, “professional” […]

December 13, 2019

Limiting the damage of short-sellers

When any individual investor or fund comes to the conclusion after careful analysis that a company is over-valued, it may very well sell short the shares of that company. Fair enough. If the analysis proves right, facts on the ground will confirm it eventually and the stock price will drop. But that’s not the game plan […]

November 22, 2019

RONA: a tragedy in three acts

Act I: In July 2012, the American corporation, Lowe’s, makes some noise about acquiring RONA, the Quebec-based chain of hardware stores. Coming on the eve of an election campaign in Quebec, the prospect of a foreign acquisition of a “strategic” Quebec company generates strong reactions and a sort of political consensus: “The Quebec government must […]

September 20, 2019

The Business Roundtable on “The Purpose of a Corporation” Back to the future!

In September 2019, CEOs of large U.S. corporations have embraced with suspect enthusiasm the notion that a corporation’s purpose is broader than merely “creating shareholder value”. Why now after 30 years of obedience to the dogma of shareholder primacy and servile (but highly paid) attendance to the whims and wants of investment funds? Simply put, […]

May 2, 2019

CPPIB backs investor group in bid to end Bombardier’s dual-class share structure

CPPIB is backing a proposal to end Bombardier Inc.’s dual class share structure and remove the control of the founding family, forcing the company onto the defensive as it hosts investors for its annual meeting Thursday. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which oversees assets worth about $368-billion and is one of Bombardier’s 25 biggest shareholders, […]

December 19, 2018

The Case for Dual-Class of Shares

There are now 69 dual-class companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, down from 100 in 2005. Only 23 Canadian companies went public since 2005 with a dual-class of shares while 16 of the 100 have since converted to a single-class and another 38 have disappeared since 2006 for other reasons (acquisitions, mergers, bankruptcies and […]

December 7, 2017

How a proposed new ‘right’ for shareholders could badly damage corporate boards

There is a frenzied rush to get/give a new ‘right” to shareholders, the right to put up their own nominees for board membership. Boards of directors, so goes a dominant opinion, are not to be fully trusted to pick the right kind of people as directors or to shift the membership swiftly as circumstances change, […]

September 7, 2017

Dow Jones Erred By Going Nuclear on Dual-Class Shares

In July 2017, Dow Jones, goaded by the reaction to Snapchat having gone public with a class of shares without voting rights, announced that, after extensive consultation, it had decided to henceforth eliminate companies with dual-class shares from its indices, in particular the S&P 500 Index. Over the last 10 years, putting money in passive […]

August 24, 2017

Dow-Jones goes nuclear on dual class of shares

In July of this year, Dow-Jones, goaded by the reaction to Snapchat having gone public with a class of shares without voting rights, announced that, after extensive consultation, it had decided to henceforth eliminate dual-class companies from its indices, in particular the S&P 500 Index. Over the last ten years, putting money in passive index funds has become […]