Manny Pressman talks about Shareholder Activism in Canada.
Video Transcript
Tony: Let's talk about shareholder activism, would it be fair to say that there has been an increase in shareholder activism in Canada over the last few years?
Manny: Absolutely, it's completely fair to say there has been an increase in the Canadian marketplace in shareholder activism. Most recently we've seen Pershing Square vis-a-vis Canadian Pacific, the Jana Group and Agrium and the very violent battle between Mason and Telus and that's just within the past few months, if I were to rewind a few years you would see far more than that, that said the levels of activity and activism are far below what you see across the border in the United States, a fraction but rest assured it is a permanent part of the landscape and it's here to stay.
Tony: And then why is this happening in Canada now?
Manny: The reality is that as a matter of corporate and securities law there are far less tools and tactics available to boards to guard against activist tactics whereas the playbook that's consistently used in the US has a lot of traction in the Canadian market.
Tony: Manny we are about three quarters of the way through 2012, we are heading into 2013, what would say is the state of the merger and acquisition market in Canada right now?
Manny: If I had to pick one word I would say it is â€Ülumpy' there are pockets of activity where we are seeing a lot of activity and others where it is quieter, that said the good news is there is no concentration of activity in any particular area that's driving the business, that's good because it means that there are sources and pockets of activity from multiple areas.
So to give a few examples of our activity levels, certainly the mining and resource area is still very, very busy both in terms of midmarket M&A activity as well as joint venture activity and in project development we've seen an incredible amount of activity in real estate and in particular consolidation among the real estate investment trusts which was driving the business in the first quarter of the year in particular and we continue to experience a lot of interest in consolidation in that sector.
Our energy and oil and gas sector is very-very active both in terms of joint ventures and pipeline activity as well as in consolidation and mergers and acquisitions and private equity and sovereign wealth funds are also a meaningful source of activity, there are a lot of discussions about how that money is going to get deployed and a lot of interest by those areas.
We've certainly see a comeback of sorts in large cap blockbuster M&A, this year alone we saw Viterra get acquired by Glencore, we see Nexen which is the subject of a friendly acquisition by CNOOC and there are some other examples. And on a global scale certainly Glencore Xstrata is the ultimate in terms of massive blockbuster mergers. So although I wouldn't say that we have seen the activity levels in the multibillion-dollar deal space that we saw at, you know in 2006 and 2007 where there are smart, sensible strategic stories that can be told in acquisitions that make sense in that regard there is a growth of M&A in that space of the market.
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