Canadian Publicly Traded Firms
12.1 Is the company a parent or a subsidiary company?
12.2 Is the parent Canadian or foreign-owned?
If your target firm is owned by a larger parent company, it is often a game-changer. What you may initially think is a local or regional firm may in fact be part of a global firm. In many instances parent companies often have representatives on the Board of Directors. These global firms may be much more difficult to organize or bargain with. At the same time, being part of a larger parent may provide other opportunities.
Most publicly traded firms are parent companies. One of the difficulties researchers encounter when they want to gather information at a divisional or subsidiary level is that all SEC filings are for the parent company. If your target firm does have a parent company, you will find that information in the Annual Infromation Form available at SEDAR. Parent companies typically own a significant amount of stock and/or have representatives on the Board of Directors.
The Inter-corporate ownership product is a comprehensive source of information available on corporate ownership. It is essentially directory of “who owns what” in Canada. It provides up-to-date information reflecting recent corporate takeovers and other substantial changes.