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http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Saputo+cent+stake+Life+building+reports/10195809/story.html Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real-estate arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, apparently has found a buyer for the 50 per cent stake in the Sun Life building that it put on the market earlier this year. Published reports Thursday identified the buyers as Montreal’s Saputo family and partners, and the transaction price at $140 million. The Caisse’s real-estate division reportedly acquired its stake for $64 million. Ivanhoe Cambridge has shared ownership of the Metcalfe St. building with insurer Sun Life since 2000. © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

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November 12, 2013, 8:55 a.m. ET National Bank Completes Acquisition of TD Waterhouse Institutional Services' Business -- This transaction further confirms National Bank Correspondent Network's leadership position by adding 260 market intermediaries, $35 billion of assets under administration and 130,000 end-clients to its book of business -- The acquisition marks another major step in National Bank's expansion of its wealth management platform across Canada MONTREAL, Nov. 12, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - Following receipt of all required regulatory approvals, National Bank of Canada ("National Bank" or the "Bank") (TSX: NA) today announced the completion of its acquisition of TD's institutional services business known as TD Waterhouse Institutional Services (TDWIS). This business will be integrated into National Bank's Correspondent Network ("NBCN"), which is Canada's largest provider of custodial, trading, clearing, settlement and record keeping services to independent registered portfolio managers and introducing brokers. Building on its large existing client base, NBCN will be servicing over 400 independent market intermediaries across the country who collectively manage or administer $85 billion for almost one-half million Canadian investors once the TDWIS business is brought on board. This acquisition greatly extends NBCN's reach, further confirming its status as the clear leader in this growing and important segment of the securities industry. "This transaction is another major step in the implementation of National Bank's strategy of expanding across Canada by broadening the footprint of our wealth management platform" said Luc Paiement, Executive Vice President, Wealth Management, Co-President and Co-CEO of National Bank Financial. "It will add considerable scale to our operations and, in the process, bring a number of appreciable benefits to all National Bank wealth management clients in the form of new products and services". "In the last few months we have met with many of our new clients, and are very pleased with the trust and confidence they have shown by joining us. We are committed to delivering to them the same industry leading service and support we have been providing NBCN's clients with for the past 20 years." said Patrick Primerano, Co-CEO of NBCN. "We are proud that all 64 TDWIS employees to whom we made offers have accepted them, and we look forward to welcoming them into our NBCN team of professionals." This transaction is accretive to National Bank's bottom line, adding $0.12 of earnings per share for fiscal 2014 and $0.14 for fiscal 2015, assuming the full benefit of the acquisition is realized in fiscal 2014. As a result of the acquisition, National Bank's Basel III Common Equity Tier 1 ratio will be reduced by approximately 40 basis points as at National Bank's quarter ending January 31, 2014. Client conversion is expected to be completed in the 8 months following the closing of the transaction, and a transition services agreement will be in place in the interim. About National Bank of Canada With $187 billion in assets as at July 31, 2013, National Bank of Canada (http://www.nbc.ca), together with its subsidiaries, forms one of Canada's leading integrated financial groups, and was named among the 20 strongest banks in the world by Bloomberg Markets magazine. The Bank has close to 20,000 employees and is widely recognized as a top employer. Its securities are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: NA). Follow the Bank's activities via social media and learn more about its extensive community involvement at clearfacts.ca and commitment.nationalbank.ca. About National Bank Correspondent Network At the service of its clients for more than 20 years, National Bank Correspondent Network has become Canada's largest provider of custodial, trading, clearing, settlement and record keeping services to independent registered portfolio managers and introducing brokers by continually redefining the industry through innovative product development, expert client care and leading technology. NBCN's team is dedicated to giving its clients the very best service and the breadth of investment choices necessary to build a successful practice. Forward Looking Statements Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking statements meant for its interpretation and shouldn't be used for other purposes. These forward--looking statements are made as of the date of this document. There is a strong possibility that express or implied projections contained in these forward-looking statements will not materialize or will not be accurate. The Bank recommends that readers not place undue reliance on these statements, as a number of factors, many of which are beyond the Bank's control, could cause actual future results, conditions, actions or events to differ significantly from the targets, expectations, estimates or intentions expressed in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, without limitation, the ability to attract and retain key employees who will support the acquired institutional services business, including certain senior management of the acquired institutional services business; the ability to complete the conversion of the client records, systems and operations supporting the acquired business within anticipated time periods and costs; the retention of substantially all of the clients of the acquired institutional services business following the closing; together with general factors such as credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk, operational risk, regulatory risk, and reputation risk, (all of which are described in greater detail in the Risk Management section that begins on page 57 of the Bank's 2012 Annual Report available at http://www.sedar.com); the general economic environment and financial market conditions in Canada, changes in the accounting policies the Bank uses to report its financial condition, including uncertainties associated with assumptions and critical accounting estimates; tax laws in Canada; and changes to capital and liquidity guidelines and to the manner in which they are to be presented and interpreted. The Bank assumes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect new events or circumstances and cautions readers not to place undue reliance on them. SOURCE National Bank of Canada /CONTACT: (The telephone number provided below is for the exclusive use of journalists and other media representatives.): Claude Breton Assistant Vice-President, Public Affairs National Bank Tel.: 514-394-8644 H ne Baril Director, Investor Relations National Bank Tel: 514-394-0296 Copyright CNW Group 2013 http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20131112-907876.html

Head offices are worth protecting High-value jobs come with territory DAVID CRANE, Freelance Published: Thursday, July 24 When Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining giant, made a successful $38.1 billion bid for Alcan a year ago, the Quebec government quickly intervened to make sure that Alcan's global head office remained in Montreal. Fortunately, the Quebec government not only had leverage but, in un-Canadian fashion, chose to exercise it. Those with longer memories can recall how, when Stone Container of Chicago acquired Montreal-based Consolidated Bathurst in 1999, the head office was quickly dismantled and most important functions were transferred to Chicago. Head offices clearly matter, and, with the number of high-profile foreign takeovers of Canadian companies, this has triggered fears of a "hollowing out" of the economy. That's why, just over a year ago, the Harper government asked a small group of talented Canadians, led by corporate executive Red Wilson, to tell it what to do. Wilson's panel - the Competition Policy Review Panel - has now delivered its report, with many important proposals to improve the competitiveness of Canadian companies and build more Canadian multinationals. But Wilson's panel has not been successful in designing an effective policy on foreign takeovers that balances Canada's commitment to an open economy with the need for a stronger business sector headquartered in Canada. Our experience tells us that head offices of large corporations bring many benefits, the panel says. "When a Canadian company is acquired by another Canadian company, Canada loses a head office but gains a stronger company. When the acquirer is foreign, Canada loses a head office and a company," it contends, arguing that foreign takeovers affect career opportunities for Canadians as well as many community benefits associated with large head offices. As the panel stresses, "the head office of an enterprise is its 'brain.' It is the place where strategy and other critical decisions are made by its key management personnel." When a Canadian firm is acquired by a foreign enterprise, decisions that once were made in Canada are now made in another part of the world where Canadian interests may have little importance. Head offices provide high-skill, high-paying jobs. And as the panel points out, head offices also support many other jobs "by attracting high-value business services - legal, accounting, consulting, information technologies, marketing and advertising - to the community." But the panel's solution to foreign takeovers is not to propose stronger rules on foreign takeovers but to advocate policies to develop a new generation of Canadian-based multinationals, companies like CAE, Bombardier and SNC-Lavalin, as well as making Canada more attractive for divisional headquarters of foreign multinationals, as happened with Alcan. These are important proposals and we should certainly do all we can. But even if we do a better job of creating new companies, the best of them could also become foreign takeover targets. So we would be growing seed corn for foreign multinationals or, as it has been put, "growing guppies to feed the sharks." Moreover, the panel would make it even easier for foreign corporations to acquire budding Canadian multinationals by limiting Investment Canada screening of foreign takeovers to companies with a value of $1 billion or more, compared with the current level of about $295 million. This would be a mistake - we should keep as much screening scope as possible. The panel does propose that instead of judging foreign takeovers on a vague test of "net benefit" to Canada, that negotiation of proposed takeovers be based on a test of "Canada's national interest." Australia, which uses the "national interest" test for takeovers of about $100 million or more, has shown it's possible to use this approach to negotiate strong terms or alternatively to say no. For example, according to Secor Consulting, when BHP Ltd. of Australia and Billiton Plc of Britain merged in 2001 to create BHP Billiton, Australia required that the company continue to be an Australian, managed in Australia and listed on the Australian stock exchange. The global headquarters had to be in Australia, both the CEO and CFO had to have their principal places of residence, offices and key supporting functions in Australia and the majority of all regularly scheduled board and executive committee meetings had to occur in Australia. So the "national interest" test could make sense. But it would have to be carefully defined to give Canadians confidence that Ottawa would really stand up for Canadian interests. The panel also proposes easing Canada's foreign takeover restrictions on foreign ownership of Canadian airlines, telecommunications companies and broadcasters. But it's hard to see clear benefits. One important recommendation the panel does make is to give directors of Canadian corporations more power to say "no" to foreign takeover bids. Today, directors are typically forced to become "auctioneers" and find an alternative buyer in response to an unwanted bid. In the U.S., directors have much greater capacity to simply say "no." Canada should continue to screen foreign takeovers, but with a more rigorous and more transparent negotiation of conditions and a greater readiness to say no, while improving the ability of corporate boards to reject unwelcome takeovers. Canada should also focus more on attracting foreign corporations to launch new businesses here, not take over our existing ones. David Crane is a Canadian writer who closely follows innovation and globalization issues. He can be reached at crane@ interlog.com. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=65bbef64-3d8f-401e-8ad2-7790f7f4bcd1&p=2