The number of large Canadian businesses seeking protection from creditors hit its highest point in more than a decade in May and June, and experts say the trend will likely continue because of COVID-19.
Under a Canadian law, the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, companies that owe at least $5 million can file for protection from their creditors to either restructure the business and continue to exist on new financial terms, or supervise an orderly wind-down of the business and sell off assets to pay back anyone it owes money to.
Similar to so-called “Chapter 11” bankruptcy filings in the U.S., CCAA proceedings are typically used as a last resort for companies that have run out of options and time.
When lockdowns because of COVID-19 were implemented in Canada in March, businesses had to adapt on the fly to stay open and keep generating sales. Companies that were in good shape before the pandemic were better able to handle that transition, generally speaking. But much like the virus itself, the economic toll of COVID-19 has been heaviest on companies with pre-existing conditions.
A record 10 companies began CCAA proceedings in May — followed by a new record of 12 companies in June. Both figures best the previous high of nine seen in December 2011 and the eight hit in in the depths of the financial crisis in October 2009. The typical month since has seen about three per month, on average, according to a database maintained by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada.
Restructuring and insolvency lawyer Karen Fellowes with firm Stikeman Elliott says COVID-19 is the catalyst for the sudden surge, but many of the victims already had problems.
“They were already in financial trouble going into COVID and then COVID just exacerbated the situation,” she said in an interview.
Fellowes says CCAA filings typically aren’t initiated by companies themselves being prudent. Rather, they’re driven by lenders saying “enough is enough,” causing the company to run to the CCAA in favour of other even worse options. Doing nothing at all can often give lenders the power to implement drastic measures, such as locking an insolvent company out of its offices, factories and stores, or even seizing assets and inventory to sell off to repay debts.
But Fellowes has seen a few of what she calls “opportunistic” filings of late by companies trying to blame unrelated problems on the pandemic.
“Some companies struggling are saying, ‘Here’s an opportunity for us to just file for creditor protection, clean up our balance sheet, restructure, recapitalize and blame it all on COVID,'” she said.
The next domino
Retailers and the energy sector in Calgary, where Fellowes is based, have drawn much of the attention, but there’s one sector that she’s watching closely in the coming months: real estate.
“I’ve always been worried about the real estate sector, frankly, and miraculously … we haven’t seen the big foreclosures we haven’t seen the big failures of real estate developments, yet,” she said.
Indeed, there’s evidence that massive government bailouts and income supports are having their desired effect of keeping people solvent as personal bankruptcies have plunged to a record low under COVID-19, but on the corporate side it’s a much different story.
“People in our world are really thinking that right now. This summer is calm before the storm,” she said.
While bankruptcies and restructurings are obviously disruptive and painful as they happen, Fellowes said ultimately they can be good for individuals, companies and the economy because they are designed to preserve value and useful assets from being wasted.
“A bankruptcy is liberating good assets from bad management,” she said.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
