Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canadian imports will hurt Canada’s economy and currency and make Canadian companies vulnerable to U.S. takeover bids, according to an influential Bay Street veteran.
Wes Hall, chairman and CEO of Kingsdale Advisors, says Canadian public companies are extremely cheap right now, in part due to the weaker loonie that has been driven by U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies.
“U.S. companies can buy a lot of things for cheap, my advice to the Prime Minister is that as much as we need to help workers that have been displaced by the tariff threat, we also need to protect companies from hostile takeovers,” Hall said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg.
Hall, whose firm often helps public companies defend themselves against activist investor campaigns, advises companies to acknowledge they could be vulnerable to shareholder activism and to do something to protect themselves against these threats.
Hall adds the Canadian government should look at how Japan is handling Couche-Tard’s bid for 7-Eleven’s owner by raising national security concerns. “We could apply the same threshold in Canada for at least a period of time, specially for companies that provide critical minerals,” he said.
