The proxy battle involving the Telus Corporation, the $19
billion Canadian telecommunications company, is shaping up to be the most
interesting of the year, involving allegations of empty voting, vote buying and
secret share accumulations. What fun according to Dealbook.
It began on Feb. 21, when Telus announced it would collapse
its dual-class share structure. The two classes of shares are identical, except
that one has voting rights.
The structure is a relic of Canadian government regulations
and ownership restrictions, which cap Telus’s foreign ownership at 33.3
percent. In 1999, Verizon, based in the United States, acquired a 26 percent
stake in Telus. To avoid running afoul of the rules, Telus issued nonvoting
shares and listed them on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock
Exchange. Telus’s voting shares remain listed only on the Toronto Stock
Exchange….
No comments:
Post a Comment