Management-led group makes takeover bid for Canaccord Genuity

A management-led group of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. employees has made a takeover bid for the company valued at $1.127 billion.

The employee group is offering $11.25 per share for the financial services firm.

The employee group making the offer includes chief executive Daniel Daviau and chairman David Kassie as well as all the members of the company’s global operating committee and additional senior and tenured employees from across its business.

The group collectively owns a 21.3% stake in the company.

The offer also has the support of Canaccord Genuity’s largest independent shareholder.

In connection with the proposal, the employee group has signed support agreements with shareholders with a 10.7% stake in the company.

Daviau said the company’s shares, which reflect the inherent volatility of the global capital markets in which it operates, have proven to be not well-suited for trading in a public marketplace.

Canaccord Genuity’s stock peaked at $16.52 in November 2021 before falling significantly last year as deal-making slowed amid volatile markets.

Canaccord’s shares, which closed at $8.61 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday, were at $11.18 in late-afternoon trading Monday.

“After the completion of the proposed offer, as an employee-owned business, the company will be able to focus its efforts solely on advancing its proven strategies in ways that serve the best interests of its clients, while continuing to support a vibrant marketplace for issuers in need of capital, entrepreneurs bringing new companies and ideas to market and investors in our wealth management and capital markets businesses,” Daviau said in a statement.

The offer comes after a meeting last year between Daviau and the company’s largest shareholder, which offered to support a going-private transaction in which it would sell its shares to a management-led group.

Canaccord Genuity said Monday that the board of directors formed a special committee of independent directors to evaluate and consider an earlier non-binding proposal by the management group and that it will respond to the proposed offer in due course.

The company said the special committee will provide a formal recommendation to shareholders within 15 days of the mailing of the management group’s takeover bid circular.

In a release on Monday, the special committee said it previously advised the management group that it was not prepared to support an offer of $11.25 per common share based on preliminary analysis.

“To date, engagement between the special committee and the management group has not resulted in an agreement on a value per common share that the special committee could support and recommend to shareholders,” the release said.

The committee — comprised of Canaccord Genuity board members Gillian Denham, Charles Bralver, Dipesh Shah and Sally Tennant — is waiting on an independent valuation from RBC Dominion Securities Inc. before providing a formal recommendation to shareholders regarding the offer.