JDS snafu shuts out Canadian investors
SIMON TUCK
Technology Reporter - Toronto Globe & Mail
Saturday, July 24, 1999
Ottawa -- An administrative snafu means that all but the deepest-pocketed Canadians will be shut out from investing in the latest share offering of market darling JDS Uniphase Corp.
The Ontario Securities Commission has rejected a request from a JDS Uniphase subsidiary, JDS Uniphase Canada Ltd., that it be exempted from reconciling its U.S. financial records with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles.
The offering of common shares in JDS Uniphase Canada, convertible into shares in the parent company, were to have been a way of increasing the base of shareholders in one of Canada's hottest stocks.
But with the offering due to be priced next week, JDS Uniphase has run out of time to reconcile its records, leaving most Canadian investors on the sidelines.
"This was supposed to give Mr. and Mrs. Average Canadian a chance to buy this stock -- and now they can't," said Duncan Stewart, a portfolio manager at Tera Capital Corp. in Toronto. "The appetite for the deal is way down in Canada."
Only "sophisticated" investors will be able to buy the stock in Canada. In Ontario, for instance, that means being able to invest a minimum of $150,000.
(The mix-up does not affect Canadian investors who already own shares in JDS Uniphase or U.S. shareholders.)
OSC officials said the company didn't realize until early July that it would have to file a reconciliation, by which point it was too late to do all the necessary legwork. The appeal, taken to an OSC panel, was a one-day hearing held Thursday.
OSC spokesman Frank Switzer said the commission didn't have much choice. "We want to make sure Canadian investors can compare apples to apples."
|
