A Bay street sign is seen in Toronto’s financial district.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail
Home Capital, having achieved peace, prepares for war
Executives at Home Capital Group Inc. spent a small part of Thursday's annual meeting discussing how they dealt with the lender's recent near-death experience. They devoted a lot more time to plans for dealing with the next meltdown in housing. Home Capital's brass is looking ahead to the tests that await lenders of all stripes – the problems that come when the economy cools, as it inevitably will, unemployment rises and homeowners begin to default on mortgages in larger numbers. Story (Andrew Willis)
Home Capital faces investor questions amid turnaround efforts
Home Capital Group Inc. sold another $250-million in mortgages, closed a financing deal with Warren Buffett's company and tallied its losses from three months of turmoil as it sought to reassure investors Thursday that it is now on more stable footing. Story (Jacqueline Nelson)
RBC Dominion Securities grabs top spot in trading survey
RBC Dominion Securities Inc. has taken the top spot in a widely followed survey that tracks the Canadian equity brokerage business, distancing itself from the rest of the Big Five bank-owned dealers. Story (Niall McGee)
DAILY DEALS
Drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc scrapped its deal to buy Rite Aid Corp after failing to win antitrust approval, but said it would instead buy nearly half of the smaller rival's U.S. stores for $5.18-billion. Story
Blue Apron Holdings Inc's shares were up about 1 per cent in their market debut on Thursday following the meal-kit delivery company's watered down IPO in the shadow of Amazon.com's deal to buy Whole Foods Market. Story
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is backing off his demand to break up insurance giant American International Group Inc, following the company's sale of assets and hiring of a new chief executive officer, a person familiar with the matter said. Story
FROM THE ANALYSTS
CIBC World Markets analyst Marco Giurleo launched his coverage on two alternative asset managers, Fierra Capital Corp. and Gluskin Sheff + Associaites Inc., both with "outperformer" ratings.
"Fiera Capital has established a long track record of accretive acquisitions and has 16 potential targets in its pipeline," the analyst wrote of Fiera. "With the firm targeting $200-billion [of assets under management] by the end of 2020, we estimate it would need to acquire ~$10-billion in AUM per year to reach its target." Inside the Market
ELSEWHERE IN FINANCE
The need to bring back Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era rule that kept commercial banks out of the investment business, is one of the few policy proposals that has found broad political support. Story (Bloomberg)