Large Canaccord shareholder moves to oust directors opposed to takeover bid

A large shareholder in Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. is moving to oust board directors opposed to management’s proposed bid to take the firm private.

Skky Capital Corporation Ltd. said Wednesday that it’s requisitioning Canaccord’s board to call a shareholder meeting and vote to remove four directors: Gillian Denham, Charles Bralver, Dipesh Shah and Sally Tennant.

The four comprise a special committee of independent directors formed to evaluate the management team’s all-cash offer of $11.25 per common share, which puts the Vancouver-based financial services firm’s value at $1.1 billion.

Last month, the special committee chaired by Denham said it would recommend to the board that shareholders not support the bid. It cited an independent valuation from RBC Dominion Securities Inc. that put the fair market value of Canaccord’s shares between $12.75 and $15.75 as of Feb. 15.

The special committee has hired Barclays Capital Canada Inc. to commence an alternative transaction process to “explore potential strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value,” it said.

The Skky shareholders said those alternatives could include a piecemeal sale of the firm.

“The divestiture of all of the assets in a single transaction to a single buyer (such as the management group) offers deal certainty at an attractive valuation,” the Skky release said. “It is preferable to separating assets and selling them to numerous buyers.”

It said the special committee “has not been responsive to shareholders” and that the board should be reconstituted by May 10. Skky owns 8.8% of Canaccord shares, according to the release, and is located in Bermuda.

Skky nominated two new independent directors: Terrence Lyons, a director of several corporations and former managing partner of Brookfield Asset Management, and Lars Rodert, founder and CEO of ÖstVäst Capital Management in Stockholm, Sweden.

Mark Burgess

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Mark was the managing editor of Advisor.ca from 2017 to 2024.