Canaccord shareholder seeks to remove special committee directors who oppose buyout

By The Canadian Press on March 8, 2023.

TORONTO – A shareholder of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. wants to remove the four directors on the company’s board that form a special committee that has opposed a buyout offer for the firm by a management-led group of employees.

Skky Capital Corp. Ltd. is seeking a shareholder meeting to remove Gillian Denham, Charles Bralver, Dipesh Shah and Sally Tennant from the board and elect two new independent directors. It has nominated Terrence Lyons and Lars Rodert.

It says it has lost confidence in the special committee and the board and that the sale of the company in a single transaction to a single buyer offers deal certainty at an attractive valuation and is preferable to separating assets and selling them.

Skky Capital, which owns an 8.8 per cent stake in Canaccord, wants to hold the shareholder meeting on or before May 10.

The special committee said last month that it would recommend shareholders not accept the buyout offer after an independent valuation prepared for it by RBC put the fair market value of Canaccord shares in a range of $12.75 to $15.75 per share as of Feb. 15.

The management-led group of Canaccord employees, which has offered $11.25 per share for the company, has called the RBC valuation “unrealistic and flawed.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CF)

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