The “Listed Issuer Financing Exemption”, known as “LIFE”, will enter into effect on November 21, 2022[i]. As its name suggests, LIFE is a prospectus exemption for distributions of securities listed for trading on a recognized Canadian stock exchange. LIFE is intended to help smaller listed issuers raise capital without incurring significant costs, a
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) Company Manual provides in section 461.3[1] that an issuer listed on TSX must adopt a majority voting policy “unless it otherwise satisfies the Majority Voting Requirement in a manner acceptable to TSX, for example, by applicable statute, articles, by-laws or other similar instruments”.
Continue Reading CBCA Corporations Listed on TSX Can Repeal Their Majority Voting Policies
Introduction
On August 3, 2021, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) announced their plan to “consolidate the functions” of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA). The consolidation will create a new single self-regulatory organization (New SRO) with the goal of providing enhanced regulation of the investment industry. The CSA will also consolidate the two existing investor protection funds into a single protection fund independent from the New SRO. The CSA plans to implement the New SRO in two phases, described below.
Continue Reading CSA to Combine IIROC and MFDA in a Single Self-Regulatory Organization
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published for a 90 day comment period proposed amendments to National Instrument 45-106 Prospectus Exemptions and CSA Staff Notice (NI 45-106), National Instrument 13-101 System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (NI 13-101) and National Instrument 45-102 Resale of Securities (NI 45-102) to introduce a new capital raising exemption for reporting issuers that are listed on a Canadian stock exchange (Listed Issuer Financing Exemption).
Continue Reading Canadian Securities Administrators Propose New Prospectus Exemption for Listed Issuers
It is likely that a trend will emerge in the coming months of cancelled transactions leading to litigation as to whether the impact of the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) amounts to a “disaster” or a force majeure under various agreements. Standard underwriting agreements contain termination provisions, some of which may be triggered by COVID-19.
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released its decision on November 9, 2018, holding that the proposed co-operative pan-Canadian securities regulator, known as the Cooperative Capital Markets Regulatory System (CCMR), is constitutional.
Background and Analysis
The CCMR first emerged in 2014 following the rejection of an earlier proposal by the SCC
