The Daily Chase: Shopify shareholders set to vote on executive compensation plan

Here are five things you need to know this morning.

Shopify shareholders vote on compensation plan: Shopify shareholders are set to vote today on whether or not to OK the e-commerce giant’s generous compensation plan for its executives. The company shook up the way it rewards its executives a number of years ago, tailoring packages more in favour of stock-based compensation. Shareholders approved the plan when changes first rolled out, with 78 per cent of them signing off. But that’s well below the usual rubber-stamping such votes often receive. Prominent proxy advisers ISS and Glass Lewis have recommended that shareholders vote against this year’s plan, which would give CEO and founder Tobi Lutke about $20 million worth of stock options for each of the last few years, and COO Kaz Netajian $75 million in stock options and restricted units that aren’t dependent on the company’s financial performance. One reason Glass Lewis doesn’t like the plan is because it is more generous than plans at the company’s competitors, despite worse recent stock performance.  Shopify shares are mostly flat in the past year, but down about 30 per cent from their February high, which was itself about 40 per cent below the all-time high the company’s value hit in 2021.

Coastal Gaslink to sell biggest ever Canadian corporate bond: Coastal Gaslink LP, the owners of a pipeline project in B.C., are selling more than $7 billion worth of notes in what is on track to be the biggest loonie-denominated corporate bond offering ever. Investors placed more than $20 billion in orders for what was supposed to be only $5 billion worth of debt offerings, Bloomberg reports.

TD Bank money laundering back in the news: Woes related to money laundering at TD Bank seem to be mushrooming this morning, as Bloomberg reported late yesterday on new allegations that workers at the bank accepted bribes to help clients hide illicit funds. As part of a sweeping U.S. Justice Department probe into money-laundering breaches at the bank, it has been uncovered that a branch worker in Florida took a series of US$200 bribes to look the other way while helping a customer move funds to Colombia. The cases have yet to be reported and don’t identify TD by name, but cast more scrutiny on the Toronto-based bank, where money-laundering issues first came to light when it scuttled a proposed $13 billion takeover of a U.S. bank once it became clear it wouldn’t get regulatory approval.