Controverse sur le rôle du TSX comme régulateur

Depuis la récente décision de l'Ontario Securities Commission dans l'affaire Hudbay/Lundin, le Toronto Stock Exchange fait l'objet de critiques pour son encadrement inadéquat des émissions de titres lors de prises de contrôle.

Comme le rapporte aujourd'hui le Report on Business dans TSX Proposal on Takeovers Gets Cold Response le TSX a proposé d'exiger que de telles émissions soient soumises à l'approbation des actionnaires lorsqu'elles impliquent une dilution de plus de 50 %. (ici) Cette proposition est toutefois loin d'être jugée suffisamment contraignante pour protéger les porteurs, comparativement aux normes en vigueur sur d'autres marchés. Les propos du représentant de la Coalition canadienne pour la bonne gouvernance étaient particulièrement cinglants:

Stephen Griggs, executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, which represents most of

Canada's largest institutional shareholders, said the 50-per-cent threshold was rejected

by his board members last week.

"We feel the TSX's response is wholly inadequate," he said.

He said it means shareholders in Canada would have fewer rights to oppose a dilutive takeover deal than those in most other major countries, which could deter foreign buyers from investing in Canada or make Canadians more likely to invest abroad.

"Not having to get shareholder approval probably makes a deal easier to conclude, but the flip side is the providers of capital from outside of Canada look at provisions like the one the TSX has proposed and say, 'Why would we invest in a country where we do not have reasonable shareholder rights?' " he said.

"And Canada looks like a banana republic or a Third World country from a governance perspective, which means the cost of capital goes up significantly."

De son côté, FAIR, toute aussi critique, va jusque à remettre en cause le rôle du TSX comme régulateur.

It is our position that the TSX/TSX-V listed company regulatory function should either operate as a separate entity within the TSX with its own board of directors or at the very least the regulatory function should operate independently of the business side of the TSX with appropriate Chinese Wall and other checks and balances. The world’s leading stock exchanges like NYSE, HKEx and ASX separated the regulatory function from the business side when they went public. In the UK, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) simply took listed company regulation away from the London Stock Exchange and listed company regulation is now a division of the FSA.

Ces commentaires issus d'une prise de position intitulée Is the TSX Leading Canada in a Race to the Bottom, interpellent l'OSC et les autres ACVM dans leur encadrement du TSX:

The OSC and other Canadian Securities Commissions must address the separation of listed company regulation from the “for profit” motivation of the TSX. Action to correct this serious deficiency in our regulatory framework will enhance shareholder confidence in the TSX and in our equity markets, a confidence that has been eroded in recent years.

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