HEADLINES

WSP Global Withdraws Takeover Offer for Arcadis

WSP Global dropped a roughly $5 billion takeover bid for Arcadis after failing to get the Dutch engineering consultancy to the negotiating table.

The Canadian engineering and infrastructure company said that it was no longer pursuing a public offer for Arcadis after being unable to engage with the target regarding the terms of a possible transaction.

WSP in late July confirmed media reports it was seeking to tie up with Arcadis by way of a friendly offer to buy the company for 51.50 euros a share, at the time valuing a bid at EUR4.435 billion (US$5.05 billion). Roughly a month later, WSP said it remained convinced a combination offered a compelling opportunity for both companies but that Arcadis board had yet to engage with WSP despite multiple invitations over several months.

BlackBerry Shares Rise on Design Win for Alloy Kore Software

BlackBerry shares rose after the company said it secured the first design win for Alloy Kore, its software platform codeveloped with Vector Informatik.

Shares rose 1.4% to C$12.12.

Coretura, a joint venture between Daimler Truck and Volvo Group, selected Alloy Kore for its software-defined commercial vehicles. Coretura will deploy the platform through its Vector Distribution to standardize core software and high-performance compute infrastructure across its commercial vehicle platform.

5N Plus Shares Rise on Footprint Expansion at Utah Semiconductor Materials Plant

5N Plus shares rose after the company said it plans to expand its Utah facility by about half to grow its advanced materials capabilities for broader applications.

Shares rose nearly 7% to C$29.60.

The producer of specialty semiconductors and performance materials said it will expand its St. George facility footprint by about 50% with the aim of providing a capital-efficient and scalable platform to cater to more applications in defense, space solar, medical imaging and industrial sensing.

Silver Tiger Metals Shares Down on C$87 Million Equity Raise to Cover Higher Project Costs

Silver Tiger Metals shares fell sharply after the company said it plans to raise C$87 million by way of a bought deal financing to fund the higher cost of developing its silver-gold project in Mexico.

Shares dropped 19.7% to C$0.94.

The company noted the costs to develop its El Tigre project in Sonora have increased by about $37 million to $124 million from its initial capital expenditure estimate. The company attributed the higher capital requirement for the project's Stockwork Zone to mining industry inflation over the past two years.

Canada's Big Six Banks Partner to Explore Canadian-Dollar Tokenized Deposit Initiative

Canada's major banks have partnered to explore a Canadian-dollar denominated tokenized deposit solution as a first step towards modernizing domestic payment infrastructure.

The six largest Canadian banks--Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Toronto-Dominion Bank--have formed a joint project to develop these digital money solutions.

Tokenized deposits are digital tokens issued by regulated banks that represent a direct one-to-one claim on traditional cash deposits that would be issued on a blockchain. The initiative aims to speed up and make more efficient and programmable payments to Canadian customers that fall under Canadian regulations.

Scotiabank Prices First Defense Bond in Canadian Market

Hammond Power Solutions Boosts U.S. Footprint With New Texas Manufacturing Facility

Hammond Power Solutions has leased a new manufacturing site in Texas as the Canadian provider of magnetic and power electronic solutions looks to beef up its capacity to service U.S. customers.

The push comes as demand for transformers continues to increase, particularly from large projects tied to data centers, electrification and power infrastructure. Hammond said the Fort Worth facility is located to improve proximity to key customers, shortening delivery distances for certain products.

Production at the site is expected to start in stages beginning in the fourth quarter of next year.

Canopy Growth Expands European Medical Cannabis Supply Into U.K.

Canopy Growth has reached a agreement to introduce its cannabis products into the U.K. market, supplying four Canadian-grown medical flower strains to a maker of cannabis-based medicines that will commercialize them under Canopy's Spectrum Therapeutics brand.

The flower strains will be supplied to Grow Group U.K.

The effort is part of a push to expand Canopy's cannabis business into another European market, and follows the recent renewal of the European Union Good Manufacturing Practice certification at Canopy's Kincardine, Ontario, cultivation facility.

Canada Regulator Reaches Agreement With Sobeys' Parent Empire on Property Controls

The parent of the Sobeys grocery chain in Canada has agreed to loosen the property controls the country's antitrust regulator accuses industry leaders of leveraging to quash competition.

The Competition Bureau on Tuesday said it reached an agreement with Empire to address concerns related to its use of property controls used in the grocery sector that restrict the use of commercial real estate for the sale of food.

After committing to changes in July, Empire will formalize measures that will become legally binding and enforceable. This includes no longer enforcing existing restrictive covenants, entering into new restrictive controls, or requesting that others establish them for the benefit of Empire, the regulator said.

Endeavour Silver's Guanacevi Mine in Mexico Hit by Mechanical Issue

Endeavour Silver's cornerstone silver mine in Mexico has temporarily scaled back capacity after a mechanical problem affecting the primary ball mill.

The Canadian silver producer said the mill at the Guanacevi mine was taken offline on Monday while preparations are completed to replace parts that are available on-site.

The company expects repairs to be completed within about three weeks, during which time the regrind circuit will be configured to operate at a reduced throughput of 600 metric tons a day, compared with the usual about 1,100 tons daily.

TALKING POINT

Meta's Muse Is a 'Killer Product'. It Won't, However, Be the Death of Shopify.

By Kit Norton, Barron's

Wall Street has opined that personal consumer artificial-intelligence agents, like Meta Platforms' Muse, could signal the destruction of Shopify's business model. It's becoming increasingly clear that may not be the case.

Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said the company has partnered with Muse to "enable agentic checkout with Shop Pay on all Shopify stores."

The partnership, announced Monday, would allow consumers to discover products from Shopify merchants and complete purchases through Shop Pay within the Muse experience.

Lutke added that consumers will have an "easy and delightful way to shop and check out with Muse."

Deutsche Bank analyst Bhavin Shah said the partnership was strategically important because it provides "another proof point that leading AI platforms are integrating with Shopify's commerce infrastructure."

"We believe the partnership helps refute the recent bear thesis that AI agents and personal shoppers could disintermediate Shopify and its large payments business," Shah added. "In fact, the partnership suggests the opposite and reinforces Shopify's core strengths."

Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating on Shopify with a $185 price target.

Shopify stock rose 7.1% to $147.74 on Tuesday after gaining 7.3% on Monday as investors continued to push shares higher due to Muse. Meta stock, meanwhile, declined 0.6% to $736.60 after rising more than 11% on Monday.

Concerns remain, however, as Shah acknowledged questions exist around the monetization of personal AI assistants and whether they will take a "cut of the transaction" or impact Shopify's current transaction fees.

"This is another concern from investors and we look forward to learning more about this over the coming months," Shah wrote.

Wall Street's bearish AI thesis on Shopify is that consumer AI agents will arrive initially, weakening the company's business, and then Big Tech will introduce small business AI tools that build the e-commerce storefronts, create and run advertisements, handle payments, and catalog customer relationship management.

Even still, the Muse integration was a positive for Shopify, especially with both Wall Street and consumers heaping praise on Muse.

Jefferies raised its price target on Meta Platforms to $875 from $710 with the firm noting that prior to Muse investors had completely dismissed the idea that Meta would be able to release a personalized consumer AI agent and that Alphabet-owned Google seemed the preferred way to play the space. Meta, however, has turned out a "killer product" with Muse that "flips the narrative," according to Jefferies.

J.P. Morgan, meanwhile, claimed on Tuesday that Muse has the potential to become the most widely used consumer AI application since OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Shopify hasn't only been busy strengthening its partnership with Meta. OpenAI last week selected Shopify as its first e-commerce partner whose merchants are able to manage ChatGPT advertising campaigns directly through Shopify.

"This reinforces our view that Shopify is benefiting from its role in the infrastructure layer underpinning AI-driven commerce rather than being at risk of displacement," TD Cowen analyst John Shao wrote.

Even with the business concerns aside, Shopify has finished up a tidy bit of business with partnerships with the the AI model that started it all and, possibly, the next big one to arrive.