Not all are satisfied with Prentice’s move. “It is not possible to start putting restrictions on foreign ownership unless we close all of our doors to foreign ownership,” wrote one respondent. Prentice was careful to stress in announcing the guidelines that they were not meant to discourage foreign investment but to clarify what is expected of foreign state-owned firms.
Of course, guidelines are no guarantee that a company won’t change its operating procedures after acquiring a Canadian company. “It is not sufficient to have scrutiny prior to purchase,” wrote one respondent. “What happens if the purchasing state is clean according to the criteria, but after purchase begins to exert influence on their Canadian assets that is considered inappropriate?”
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/managing/strategy/article.jsp?content=20080103_161907_4888
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CEOs Like New Foreign-Ownership Rules
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How does America look to the world at the start of the new year? It
looks like it's on sale.
Cheap dollars will do that. Everyone knows foreign tourists are
flocking to American cities to shop till they drop. Foreign companies
and government funds have been purchasing American business interests
with just as much enthusiasm.
So who is buying corporate America? Perhaps it's those Far East
sovereign investment vehicles like the Singapore government fund
that's spending $5 billion for nearly 10 percent of Merrill Lynch or
the state-controlled China Investment Corp. buying almost 10 percent
of Morgan Stanley for about the same amount? Maybe it's Middle Eastern
interests like those in Abu Dhabi shelling out $7.5 billion for a big
chunk of Citigroup?
All those examples are real, of course, but they don't accurately
reflect the big picture. The largest and most prolific foreign buyers
of American companies last year came from the broad collection of
developed markets in Europe, according to Capital IQ, a financial data
subsidiary of Standard & Poor's.
The second-largest buyer of American business interests wasn't a
region or a swath of connected national markets, but a single country.
What nation strikes fear in the heart of the informed business
xenophobe? Oh, Canada!
Seriously. Our neighbors to the north, the ones we think of as so
unassuming, were among the world's most aggressive buyers of American
interests last year, when foreign acquisition absolutely boomed. Let
me rattle off a few numbers to prove a point and be done with it.
Foreign buyers spent about $294 billion in more than 600 mergers and
acquisitions involving American targets in 2007, according to Capital
IQ. That's roughly the same amount of money foreigners spent buying US
companies in the three previous years combined.
Canadians were involved in 159 transactions worth nearly $41 billion
in 2007. That's roughly the same number of deals Canadians struck in
2006, but they spent 48 percent more last year.
By comparison, buyers in the developed countries of Asia spent $30
billion on American corporate assets in 2007. Middle eastern interests
spent $18 billion.
Who knew Boston was on the leading edge of a national trend when so
much of its corporate identity became, frankly, Canadian a few years
ago.
---
When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp
<br />
Troubled markets in 2007 could provide prime investment opportunities in new year<br />
<br />
By David Friend, THE CANADIAN PRESS<br />
2007-12-30 12:53:00<br />
<br />
TORONTO - Rising gold prices, a troubled U.S. mortgage market and downtrodden bank stocks could all pose major investment opportunities in what's expected to be a turbulent new year on the markets, according to several stock observers. <br />
<br />
But investors need to stay cautious over challenges that could affect other areas such as commodities pricing and the languishing U.S. housing market. <br />
<br />
"This coming year, I think especially in the first half, is when stocks will bounce up and down," said Adrian Mastracci, portfolio manager at KCM Wealth Management in Vancouver. <br />
<br />
"Don't fret, don't be concerned and don't go overboard in one sector. Over the next six months you're going to get more than one shot to buy lows."<br />
<br />
...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://money.canoe.ca/PersonalFinance/2007/12/30/4746023-cp.html">http://money.canoe.ca/PersonalFinance/2007/12/30/4746023-cp.html</a><p>---<br>"George Bush has declared the war on terrorism to be the cause of his generation. The cause of Canadian sovereignty will be ours." - John Godfrey, MP for Don Va
<a href="http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/cprp-gepmc.nsf/en/00013e.html">http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/cprp-gepmc.nsf/en/00013e.html</a><br />
<br />
"FDI has for decades been a significant contributor to Canada's economic performance. As such, Canada's total stock of inward FDI as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) is high among mature industrialized countries, reaching 31.4 percent in 2006, much higher than the proportion in the U.S. (13.5 percent) or in Japan at only 2.5 percent. (Figure 4) Canada's share of North American inward FDI stock was 16.3 percent in 2005, an increase from 12.6 percent in 2001. This followed extremely high levels of inflows in the 1960s and 1970s."<p>---<br>"George Bush has declared the war on terrorism to be the cause of his generation. The cause of Canadian sovereignty will be ours." - John Godfrey, MP for Don Va
It brings nothing to a country, its purpose is that of a bottle of priming water for a pump to start an unlimited and fully owned flow, depriving the owners from the water.
It is a very old business law that when you have resources, you have capital, again, especially since bank deregulation.
I've been in business since 1957 and had umpteen loans, can call up my CU and just tell them how much I want and the next time I go to town I sign for it and it will be in my account, without having to sell any of my property. The same applies to countries.
The even bigger fraud is that the tax people have no idea about the incomes and profits of these companies, as the payments can and do go into foreign tax havens, cheating the countries and people left and right.
Ed Deak.