On April 16, 2015, the securities regulators in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan published for comment Multilateral CSA Notice 45-315 – Proposed Prospectus Exemption for Certain Distributions through an Investment Dealer whereby the regulators proposed a new prospectus exemption that, if approved, would greatly increase the potential private placement investor base for a listed

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) recently published final amendments to National Instrument 45-106 Prospectus and Registration Exemptions (to be renamed Prospectus Exemptions) (NI 45-106) relating to the accredited investor and minimum amount investment prospectus exemptions. Subject to Ministerial approval, the amendments will come into force on May 5, 2015.

Key Changes

From a fund manager/dealer’s perspective, the key changes are as follows:

  • The minimum amount exemption (MA Exemption) is no longer available to individuals;
  • The accredited investor exemption (AI Exemption) is amended to :
    • in Ontario, allow fully managed accounts to purchase investment fund securities as an accredited investor, as is already permitted in other Canadian jurisdictions;
    • add trusts established by accredited investors for their family members as a category of accredited investor;
    • add a requirement to obtain a new “plain language” risk acknowledgement form (Form 45‑106F9) from “individual” accredited investors;

In addition, the CSA provides additional guidance relating to practices for verifying if purchasers meet the conditions for relying on a prospectus exemption in amendments to Companion Policy 45‑106CP Prospectus and Registration Exemptions (to be renamed Prospectus Exemptions) (CP 45‑106).

MA Exemption

The $150,000 threshold of the MA Exemption has not been changed. However, the MA Exemption will no longer be available to individual investors, as the CSA does not believe the threshold to be a proxy for sophistication or the ability to withstand financial loss for individual investors.
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