Business Corporations

Published in the Globe and Mail on November 29, 2016.

Rare is the precedent-setting securities case that emerges from the Yukon Court of Appeal. The recent attempted arrangement between InterOil Corp. and Exxon Mobile Corp., however, has given rise to such a case. The decision contains a welcome judicial pronouncement on fairness opinions in the context of corporate mergers.

InterOil was set to merge with another corporation before Exxon came forward with a “white knight” offer. InterOil’s financial adviser, Morgan Stanley, provided it with a fairness opinion stating that the merger (which was structured as an arrangement) was fair from a financial point of view.

While fairness opinions are common in merger transactions, their purpose may be legitimately questioned. Should they provide shareholders with information about their investment and the transaction under consideration? Or, in the words of the judge at first instance, are they simply “comfort letters” that provide boards with support for their decision to enter into the merger?

Many alternatives regarding the way forward for troubled Bombardier Inc. have been proposed. The Quebec government has already committed $1.3 billion in aid and now some type of moral argument is being levelled at Ottawa to throw money into Bombardier’s cap also. This is a very bad idea from a governance perspective, as well as a taxpayer perspective.

Let’s be clear about Bombardier’s governance reality: The Bombardier/Beaudoin families hold almost 60 per cent of voting power in the corporation, despite holding an economic interest of just one-quarter of that figure. This is a dual-class-share firm that just isn’t flying.

A federal bailout would place a billion or more taxpayer dollars in the hands of family that is insulated from governance accountability because of the corporate structure that it has chosen. This insulation and lack of accountability have not been good for the company. Over the past five years, Bombardier’s stock price has declined more than 75 per cent. Why should Canadian taxpayers be on the hook for Bombardier’s poor corporate governance?