Here are the top reads on deals and financial services over the last week,
FINANCIAL SERVICES NEWS
Regulators review automatic share sales programs after Bombardier controversy: Canada’s securities regulators are launching a review of automatic share sale programs after controversial trading last year at Bombardier Inc. led to calls for reform by investor rights advocates. Story (Nicolas Van Praet)
Investment managers need to become coders, says former CPPIB CEO: Mark Wiseman is learning Python, one of the world’s top computer programming languages. Story (Clare O’Hara and David Milstead)
TD Ameritrade adjusts to a zero-commission world with cost-cutting, growth measures: TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. is speeding up a strategy to cut costs and find new ways to make money that would mitigate the impact of lost revenue from a price war in the U.S. discount brokerage market. Story (James Bradshaw)
Canada’s big banks are fighting to win doctors’ trust – and their money: Just days after Bank of Nova Scotia unveiled its hefty $2.6-billion bid to buy MD Financial Management last May, Leo Salom called together what he calls his “SWAT team.” Story (Clare O’Hara)
Teachers, Caisse provide startup capital to Constellation Insurance venture: The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec are teaming up on a US$500-million venture to invest in growing insurance companies, a sector whose long-term strategies have proven attractive to Canada’s big pension plans. Story (David Milstead)
Return of the REITs: Financing rush makes real estate the hottest sector on Bay Street: Canadian real estate investment trusts are capitalizing on a growing hunger for yield-driven stocks, tapping investors for fresh cash in an unexpected flurry of financings. Story (Tim Kiladze)
DEALS NEWS: MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS, IPOs and FINANCINGS
How SoftBank’s rescue deal for WeWork came together: Just a few months ago, WeWork’s co-founder Adam Neumann was being courted by Wall Street’s top investment bankers in anticipation of one of this year’s most high-profile initial public offerings. Story (Reuters)
Hudson’s Bay agrees to be taken private after Baker group hikes bid: A group led by Hudson’s Bay Co. executive chairman Richard Baker raised its takeover offer for the department store chain by $100-million on Monday and won approval for the bid from members of the company’s board of directors. Story (Andrew Willis and Rachelle Younglai)
Why Baker’s offer for HBC is unlikely to go higher: The numbers behind Richard Baker’s sweetened privatization offer for Hudson’s Bay Co. are a testament to the dire state of department-store retail. They also show why an even richer bid from his group of insiders is unlikely. Opinion (Jeffrey Jones)
GFL launches waste management IPO, hoping to raise US$2.4-billion: Canadian waste management company GFL Environmental Inc. has officially launched its initial public offering, looking to raise as much as US$2.4-billion in one of Canada’s largest-ever IPOs. Story (Tim Kiladze)
SoftBank clinches deal to take over WeWork: source: SoftBank Group Corp. has agreed to spend more than US$10-billion to take over WeWork, doubling down on an ill-fated investment and paying off its co-founder Adam Neumann to relinquish control, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Story (Reuters)
Pension funds pay double last year’s IPO price for AltaGas Canada: Two Canadian pension funds are teaming up to acquire AltaGas Canada Inc., paying more than double the company’s initial public offering price only one year ago. Story (Tim Kiladze)
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The Road to Nowhere: Why everything you’ve heard about the Ring of Fire is wrong: Ontario Premier Doug Ford has talking points he’s fond of repeating – over and over again – and one of his favourites is a pledge to build a billion-dollar road to a boggy, remote region of Northern Ontario known as the Ring of Fire. Story (Niall McGee and Jeff Gray)
Hip robo-adviser Wealthsimple’s audacious plan to take on the big banks: This May, Jacob Weinstein had an idea. The Toronto Raptors had just made it to the NBA finals, and most of Canada was enthralled. Weinstein, the art director at Wealthsimple Inc., wondered if there was a way for the company to harness that enthusiasm. Story (Joe Castaldo)
What if financial markets just can’t cope with climate uncertainty? When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City in 2012, it forced the closure of the city’s stock exchange for two days, the longest weather-related shutdown of the institution since a blizzard in 1888. A 30-member team slept at its headquarters, working tirelessly to bring the exchange back to life, even as the surrounding financial district was still flooded. The storm demonstrated the challenges posed to financial markets by climate change. Now, Ryan Riordan, a professor at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, has used the experience to study how to prepare for inevitable future climate shocks. Story (Liza Agrba)
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