Here are the top reads from the week. Have a great weekend,
Doug Ford vs. Bay Street: Mindless populist attacks aren’t going to help Ontario’s Conservatives Opinion (Andrew Willis, for subscribers)
Investigation: RCMP officers searched the head office of real estate developer Fortress Real Developments Inc. on Friday morning as part of a syndicated-mortgage fraud investigation. Story (Janet McFarland)
Mining sector: Eldorado Gold Corp. may sell its Brazilian gold operations as it seeks to raise capital over the next 18 months, says a precious-metals fund manager. Story (Niall McGee, for subscribers)
Investing in PE: When RBC Dominion Securities looked for defensive stocks within the diversified financials sector, one company it found held up particularly well when the stock market tumbled: Onex Corp., the Toronto-based private-equity firm. Story (David Berman, for subscribers)
Dissidents: Crescent Point Energy Corp. has shot back at an activist investor who launched a proxy fight at the oil producer this week, saying that voting in favour of his slate of directors would halt the company’s plans to win back the market’s trust. Story (Jeffrey Jones)
IPOs: Ceridian HCM Holding Inc. has upsized its planned initial public offering, saying it hopes to raise more than US$500-million selling stock to the public plus an additional US$100-million worth of shares to its private equity backers Thomas H. Lee Partners L.P. and Cannae Investors LLC. Story (Sean Silcoff)
Reverse takeover: Ottawa’s Martello Technologies Inc., which provides a growing suite of tools to make businesses’ communications networks more effective, is trying to go public through the reverse takeover of an inactive shell company on the TSX Venture Exchange’s NEX board. Story (Josh O’Kane)
Bad guys: The RCMP is changing how it approaches white-collar crime in Canada and aims to bolster its ranks with more expertise from outside the force to fight stock-market abuse, including capital markets specialists, data experts and forensic accountants. Story (Grant Robertson and Tom Cardoso, for subscribers)
Financial products: If you can’t research a simple mutual fund, you’re not cut out to be a do-it-yourself investor. So enough with the outrage over online brokerage firms selling mutual funds with embedded fees for investment advice. In what may be a first, I’m not jumping to the defence of investors on this one. Opinion (Rob Carrick)
International banking: Bank of Nova Scotia has abandoned a deal to sell its Malaysian unit to a Taiwanese financial-services firm after failing to close the transaction before a deadline. Story (James Bradshaw, for subscribers)
Tech deal: American venture capital firm Frontier Capital has bought control of its third Canadian tech firm in the past year, paying $65-million for a majority stake in Vancouver subscription software firm Agreement Express. Story (Sean Silcoff, for subscribers)
Activist investors: Crescent Point Energy Corp.’s primary message to shareholders this spring is that in the past year, it has “remained focused on what we can control.” The company defines this as “operational excellence, long-term value creation and financial discipline.” This is the tell that what it presumably cannot control – the recent performance of its stock price – offers little good news. Opinion (David Milstead)
Canadian venture capital: The former chief financial officers of Google Inc. and BlackBerry Ltd. are joining Montreal-based venture capital firm iNovia Capital. Story (Sean Silcoff)
Bank AGMs: The head of Canada’s third-largest bank is warning that inaction on the Trans Mountain pipeline project would be damaging to the country’s economy and competitiveness. Story (James Bradshaw)
Financial products: One of Canada’s largest exchange-traded fund managers is winding down two small ETFs that offered investors a way to play volatility in equity markets. Story (Andrew Willis)
Regulators: Of all the obstacles standing in the way of a national securities regulator, language may be the real deal-breaker. The fear that a Toronto-based national regulator would pay only lip service to regional differences – especially language-related ones – remains the biggest reason Quebec refuses to sign on to the creation of a single securities authority. Opinion (Konrad Yakabuski, for subscribers)
Analysts: Mining companies need to disclose more information ahead of earnings releases to offset volatility in their share prices, says RBC Dominion Securities Inc. analyst Dan Rollins. Story (Niall McGee)
Sector coverage: Bank of Montreal is pushing deeper into the marijuana sector by assigning an analyst to cover the space and holding its first cannabis conference at the end of May. Story (Christina Pellegrini, for subscribers)
Compensation: It didn’t pay to get fired at Bank of Nova Scotia over the past two years, compared with the other big banks. That’s a tough break for senior executives at Canada’s most global bank, but good news for investors. Story (Andrew Willis, for subscribers)
Advisers: Toronto-Dominion Bank has taken unusual steps to discourage some clients from investing in the marijuana sector. The bank is limiting the ways in which its advisers discuss the industry with clients, banning staff from recommending almost all marijuana firms and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to a recent internal e-mail viewed by The Globe and Mail. Story (Clare O’Hara and Christina Pellegrini, for subscribers)
FRIDAY FINANCIAL SERVICES WRAP
U.S. bank quarters: Two U.S. regulators have proposed Wells Fargo & Co pay US$1-billion in penalties to resolve probes into auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses at the third-largest U.S. bank, overshadowing its first-quarter results. Story
Citigroup Inc reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday, driven by strength in its consumer banking business and a surge in equities trading. Story
JPMorgan Chase & Co’s quarterly profit fell short of Wall Street expectations on Friday as lower revenue from investment banking ate into gains from stock trading and higher interest rates. Story
Exchanges: The London Stock Exchange named Goldman Sachs’ veteran David Schwimmer as chief executive officer on Friday after a boardroom battle led to the departure of Xavier Rolet in November. Story
FRIDAY DEAL WRAP
Bratz doll maker MGA Entertainment said on Friday its billionaire founder and chief executive, Isaac Larian, had made an $890-million bid for Toys ‘R’ Us stores in the United States and Canada. Story
WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHERE
Compensation: BlackRock has bumped up the pay of its chief executive officer and other executives after a year of strong performance. According to a filing made Friday by the asset manager, CEO Larry Fink’s pay increased approximately 10 percent in 2017, as compared with the previous year. Institutional Investor
Valuations: The value of Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. keeps reaching new heights. The rocket maker authorized a $US507 million fundraising round on April 5 at a valuation of about $25 billion, according to PitchBook Data. Bloomberg
Banking technology: AI in banking: the reality behind the hype Financial times
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