Foreign takeovers go both ways

TORONTO — Canadian companies are both the hunters and the hunted when it comes to international acquisitions, according to an article in Maclean’s magazine. The recent bids by Lowe’s for RONA and by California-based McKesson Corp. for drug store chain Rexall has focused attention on American takeovers of Canadian firms, with the CBC publishing a list of such deals over the past decade, including Tim Hortons and the iconic Hudson’s Bay Co. Yet according to figures obtained by Canadian Business magazine, Canadian companies acquired more businesses from other countries than the reverse. Howard E. Johnson, president of M&A International, the research firm which provided the information, attributed the “perception gap” to media coverage, which sensationalizes takeovers of Canadian companies while burying the opposite phenomena in the business pages.