RCMP, AMF raid Amaya, Canaccord Genuity, Manulife

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Autorité des Marchés Financiers have raided the Montreal offices of Amaya Inc., Canaccord Genuity and Manulife Financial.

RCMP Cpl. François Gagnon confirmed the raid to Advisor.ca, but said it was an AMF investigation, and the RCMP was “just providing security.”

The AMF confirmed the Wednesday raid in a statement to Forbes, which originally reported the raid.

In a statement released last night, Amaya confirmed the investigation was “with regards to trading activities in Amaya securities surrounding the corporation’s acquisition of Oldford Group in 2014. To [Amaya’s] knowledge, this does not involve any allegations of wrongdoing by the corporation. […] The investigation has had no impact on Amaya’s business operations, employees or companies.”

A spokesperson for Canaccord Genuity told Canadian Press, “We’re co-operating fully with the routine request for information.” In an emailed statement to Advisor.ca, Rebecca Freiburger, director, Media Relations at Manulife, wrote, “We are aware of the actions taken by the AMF and RCMP. We are fully cooperating with this investigation. All questions should be directed to the AMF.”

Amaya’s good year

Amaya’s shares have gained 341% over the last year to date, and closed Thursday at $35.06, up $0.22. As of 9:50 am Friday, the stock was down $4.13, or 11.8%.

In June 2014, Amaya announced it was buying Oldford Group Limited, the world’s largest online poker company and owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, for US$4.9 billion cash. The deal closed August 1. Canaccord Genuity underwrote the deal along with Cormark Securities and Desjardins Capital Markets. Canaccord and Deutsche Bank were lead advisors.

As part of the same deal, Canaccord Genuity agreed to purchase US$130 million of convertible preferred shares of Amaya. Eleven days later, it upped the private placement offering to US$180 million, citing additional demand and bringing the total gross proceeds from the issuance to US$1.05 billion.

In November, Amaya beat expectations as its adjusted Q3 profit increased 10-fold to nearly $70 million, or 43 cents per share for the period ended Sept. 30. That’s compared to $6.8 million, or seven cents per share, a year earlier. Revenues were $239 million, up from $38.6 million a year earlier.

On Wednesday, Canaccord Genuity paid a quarterly dividend of $0.05 per common share and a special dividend of $0.05 per common share. In its quarterly results for the period ended Sept. 30, it reported revenue of $236 million, an increase of 29%, from the same period last year. Its adjusted net income rose 208%. Its diluted earnings per common share was $0.17, compared to $0.03 the year prior.

In November, Manulife Financial’s net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $1.1 billion or 57 cents per share, up from $1.034 billion or 54 cents per share in the third quarter of 2013. The company saw declines across its North America operations as wealth management sales fell 15% in Canada and 6% in the U.S. On the insurance side, sales in the U.S. were down 19%, and they were down 23% in Canada.

Yesterday, Manulife Financial’s shares closed up $0.07 to $21.66 (and are up 3.34% YTD), and Canaccord Genuity closed up $0.03 to $7.33 (up 5.47% YTD).

More to come.

Melissa Shin

Melissa is the editorial director of Advisor.ca and leads Newcom Media Inc.’s group of financial publications. She has been with the team since 2011 and been recognized by PMAC and CFA Society Toronto for her reporting. Reach her at mshin@newcom.ca. You may also call or text 416-847-8038 to provide a confidential tip.