{"id":207616,"date":"2019-03-29T22:40:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-30T02:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=207616"},"modified":"2019-03-29T22:40:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T02:40:27","slug":"quebecs-caisse-has-a-voice-in-snc-lavalins-boardroom-and-a-role-in-its-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/29\/quebecs-caisse-has-a-voice-in-snc-lavalins-boardroom-and-a-role-in-its-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec’s Caisse has a voice in SNC-Lavalin’s boardroom, and a role in its future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
uebec’s Caisse de depot et placement holds a roughly 20 per cent stake in SNC-Lavalin, making it far and away the biggest shareholder. (File Photo<\/a> Screen-grabbed from
CDPQ – Caisse de d\u00e9p\u00f4t et placement du Qu\u00e9bec\/Youtube<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2013 Quebec’s pension fund manager could play an outsize role in whether SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. eventually pulls up stakes for the United States.<\/p>\n

The engineering and construction giant told federal prosecutors that its \u201cPlan B\u201d in the event of criminal prosecution on corruption charges is to move its headquarters south of the border and shed more than 60 per cent of its 8,700 Canadian jobs, internal documents reveal.<\/p>\n

Quebec’s Caisse de depot et placement holds a roughly 20 per cent stake in SNC-Lavalin, making it far and away the biggest shareholder. The pension fund also has a $1.5-billion loan agreement with SNC-Lavalin stipulating that the firm must remain rooted in Montreal until at least 2024, though refinancing may be an option.<\/p>\n

The roughly $1.18 billion in company shares held by the Caisse \u2013 which has a mandate to grow Quebec business \u2013 gives the pension fund extra clout at the boardroom table, said Altacorp Capital analyst Chris Murray said. The loan, while partially paid off, adds leverage to a pension fund whose investing pedigree carries respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 20 per cent shareholder has some pretty significant influence,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

The Caisse also aims to grow its investments, making a move to the U.S. potentially more attractive as conflicting mandates collide, said Karl Moore, an associate professor at McGill University’s business school.<\/p>\n

\u201cSNC being one of our larger firms, it would absolutely fall within 1\/8its 3\/8 mandate and the Caisse would not want them to move. On the other hand, as good business people, they might see that as the best course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey absolutely would have a pipeline to 1\/8CEO 3\/8 Neil Bruce,\u201d Moore added.<\/p>\n

Last month Caisse chief executive Michael Sabia said the pension fund would \u201cbe a rock\u201d’ for SNC-Lavalin and ready to boost its stake in the company, barring any technical barriers.<\/p>\n

The Caisse declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n

Internal SNC-Lavalin documents \u2013 part of a PowerPoint presentation for prosecutors last September and obtained by The Canadian Press \u2013 state that criminal prosecution \u201cwill likely have very negative consequences for Canadian employees, shareholders, pensioners, customers\u201d and other groups.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, the firm walked back a statement by its chief executive, who said he never cited the protection of 9,000 Canadian jobs as a reason the construction giant should be granted a remediation agreement.<\/p>\n

Opinions vary on the impact of an exit by the 108-year-old company.<\/p>\n

SNC-Lavalin is working on the five biggest infrastructure projects in the country, according to trade magazine ReNew Canada. Those contracts alone amount to $52.8 billion, and include projects for Bruce Power and the Darlington nuclear plant in Ontario as well as the Site C dam in B.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be sad, very sad, because we will lose decision centres, we will lose key jobs and all of the impacts on the accounting firms and law firms,\u201d said Michel Nadeau, a former Caisse executive.<\/p>\n

Local construction contractors and suppliers would likely find work for other firms while sought-after SNC-Lavalin layoffs would quickly be snapped up, he said.<\/p>\n

But the disruption would still be sizable, according to Murray. \u201cYou just can’t take something of that magnitude out of the system and not expect there to be impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2013 Quebec’s pension fund manager could play an outsize role in whether SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. eventually pulls up stakes …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":207624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-christopher-reynolds","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207627,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207616\/revisions\/207627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}