A person walks past a TD Bank sign in Toronto's financial district.Alex Lupul/The Canadian Press
Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: The billionaire Weston family announced a major acquisition. There’s a shakeup in Canadian utilities. And Starbucks could take over another fast-food chain. Take our quiz and find out what happened in business.
Mr. Musk, a trillionaire who attended university in Ontario, has fathered children with multiple Canadian women and has called himself “half Canadian,” said this week that he supports those who want their provinces to be independent. “Quebec should separate,” he wrote on X, the social media platform he owns. Quebec “would be better off” as its own country, he added. “Alberta and Saskatchewan should separate too.” https://asset-boost.pro/world/article-elon-musk-supports-independence-quebec-alberta-saskatchewan/%3C/p%3E
d. Boots dominates the market for pharmacies in the United Kingdom, with 51,000 employees, a strong brand and stores located close to 80 per cent of the population.
a. Emera, formerly a Nova Scotia Crown corporation, is based in Halifax. The friendly merger deal announced this week aims to unite Emera’s gas and electrical networks in Nova Scotia, Florida and the Caribbean with Canadian Utilities’ operations in Alberta and Australia.
d. Cleveland-Cliffs chief executive Lourenco Goncalves is already under fire for laying off as many as 500 steel workers at Stelco in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ont., despite an agreement with the federal government that bars such actions. Now he is brawling with Jim Ritchie, the owner of British Columbia-based steel distribution company Cascadia Metals Ltd., who says he is a big buyer of galvanized steel from Stelco. Mr. Ritchie says Stelco’s decision to stop producing the product has left Cascadia in a jam and forced it to import from overseas markets to fill the void. In response, Mr. Goncalves called Mr. Ritchie a “walking eagle,” meaning a bird that can’t fly because it is full of excrement. Mature, that.
a. Suncor said it is selling its interests in three oil fields off Newfoundland to London-based Ithaca Energy. The deal, worth up to $1.55-billion, marks a major reduction in the Calgary-based company’s presence in the Atlantic region, where it has been active for decades. Suncor wants to focus on its oil sands assets in northern Alberta.
b. Cenovus Energy announced plans to buy rival oil-sands producer Athabasca Oil Corp. for roughly $5.7-billion in cash and stock. The deal marks one more step in the march toward consolidation of Alberta’s oil sands. Cenovus made its Athabasca announcement roughly 12 hours after Suncor Energy said it would sell some of its assets off the coast of Newfoundland to focus on the oil sands.
d. Vancouver International Airport is poised to become the first of the country’s large airports to be privatized by the federal government, sources say. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans three weeks ago to open up four of the country’s biggest airports to private investment.
c. The Supreme Court justices are wrestling with a bid by oil companies ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy to thwart a lawsuit by officials in Boulder, Colo., that seeks monetary damages for harms caused by climate change. U.S.-based Exxon and Canada-based Suncor appealed after the Colorado Supreme Court allowed Boulder’s lawsuit to proceed. Lawyers for the oil companies argue that the case is based on state law, but that jurisdiction over interstate pollution is a federal matter.
c. Ms. O’Neill joined Lululemon a month ago and has already begun an overhaul of its leadership ranks. The company’s shareholders hope she can revitalize a brand that pioneered high-end workout gear, but now faces stiff competition from newer, hotter athleisure brands, as well as cheaper alternatives.
b. Ms. McCain is ramping up her campaign for a lucrative exit from privately owned McCain Foods by calling a family meeting to discuss an initial public offering from the world’s largest frozen French fry maker. This week she e-mailed a letter to approximately 55 second-, third- and fourth-generation descendants of McCain Foods’ founders, inviting them to attend a virtual meeting to review options for future ownership of a global company worth more than $20-billion.
c. The average asking price for a rental unit in September was $2,034, down 4.2 per cent compared with a year ago. A monthly report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation said the figures mark two full years of annual declines, the longest downturn the Canadian rental market has experienced in recent history. Maybe it’s time to start feeling sorry for landlords.
a. Starbucks is exploring a takeover of Chipotle Mexican Grill, according to the Financial Times. The move, if it does happen, would reunite Starbucks chief executive Brian Niccol with the burrito chain he led before joining the coffee giant two years ago. It would also be the biggest restaurant merger in history. But don’t count on getting a latte with your chicken burrito just yet: Talks are still in a very early stage.