Weekly Regional Business Intelligence | | | Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | | | VersaBank to move headquarters south of the border VersaBank announced on Thursday that it plans to relocate its corporate headquarters to the United States. The digital B2B bank said it is reorganizing its corporate structure such that VersaHoldings US Corp will become the parent company to VersaBank’s Canadian operations, a move the company said will “realign its corporate structure with the standard framework of a U.S. bank,” as well as to “realize additional shareholder value, further mitigate risk and reduce corporate costs.” The reorganization will see David Taylor, the current president and CEO, shift to the U.S. side as president and CEO, while Susan McGovern, currently the vice-chair, will assume the role of interim CEO of VersaBank Canada here in London. The restructuring is expected to cost the company around $8 million, and is subject to shareholder, regulatory and other approvals. The plan calls for existing shares of VersaBank to be exchanged for new shares of VersaHoldings US Corp., and the new shares of VersaHoldings will be listed on the Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange in place of the current VersaBank shares. The upshot: If you’re sitting at your desk rueing a Canadian company moving south, probably best to hold your horses ― this kind of move was likely always in the cards as VersaBank pursued aggressive expansion outside of Canada, and it’s more about setting themselves up for further expansion than spurning the true north strong and free. “This initiative would be an important and strategic change to our corporate structure to align VersaBank with the standard framework with which U.S. and international investment communities are most familiar, enabling eligibility for value driving inclusion in certain stock indices, including the Russell 2000, simplifying our regulatory structure and reducing our corporate costs,” Taylor explained in a released statement. “In addition, we believe this new structure would facilitate further international expansion as the bank explores additional markets beyond Canada and the United States. The total cost of this realignment is expected to be approximately 1.5 per cent of our current market capitalization, with the anticipated benefits to incremental shareholder value expected to far exceed this investment.” Read more: Nasdaq | | | NP Aerospace Canada to produce armoured personnel transport modules NP Aerospace Canada will build armoured personnel transport modules for Marshall Canada, the company announced this week. Marshall Canada is part of a consortium called the Power Team ― made up of General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, Marshall, Mercedes Benz, Soframe and Manac ― that was awarded the $2.5-billion Logistic Vehicle Modernization (LVM) contract to replace the Canadian Armed Forces’ fleet of logistics vehicles last year. “The LVM program is a major procurement for Canada’s Department of National Defence, and for NP Aerospace to be in the Power Team supply chain is significant,” said NP Aerospace’s CEO James Kemptston. “Our Canadian business is growing fast, having doubled in staff in the last 12 months, and this contract will enable us to further develop our on-shore capability to serve our customers, both domestically and as a Canadian exporter.” Alain Gauthier, Marshall’s VP for North America, said, “We are delighted to be growing our strategic relationship with NP Aerospace while investing in our Canadian supply chain under the LVM program. NP Aerospace is already a trusted supplier and partner, and we know the team possesses the required facilities, skills, knowledge, procurement and processes in place to provide the next generation of armoured personnel transport modules.” The upshot: Let the defence spending flow. Canada is under a lot of pressure to bring its defence spending in line with NATO’s two-per-cent-of-GDP target, and new prime minister Mark Carney has said that defence spending will be a priority, although this was a Trudeau-era contract for the Power Group. NP Aerospace said the contract will “result in the recruitment of up to 20 more staff at NP’s Ontario base” on Swiftsure Court in the city’s east end, which will “continue their successful growth trajectory and further contribute to the London and southwestern Ontario region.” Read more: NP Aerospace | | | Ironstone Building and Libro team up to offer first-time homebuyer program London’s Ironstone Building Company is partnering with Libro Credit Union and launching a program called HomeStart that will loan first-time buyers up to $100,000 as it looks to move some of the properties in its inventory. “Our inventory numbers have gone up a little bit over the past year, and we wanted to do something to spark some sales,” Ironstone Building president Dave Stimac told The London Free Press. A press release from Libro outlines that the loan is interest- and payment-free for 10 years, after which second mortgage rates apply; buyers are also eligible to have 25 per cent of that loan forgiven if they purchase a second Ironstone home within five years. “HomeStart aligns with our purpose of strengthening the financial well-being of owners, businesses and communities, and we couldn’t be more excited to establish this partnership,” said Shawn Good, president of Libro Credit Union. The upshot: Home sales are certainly flagging in London and elsewhere amid economic anxiety around the tariffs, plus the well-established challenges of affording a new home for many younger buyers, so it’s not surprising to hear homebuilders are struggling to move inventory. At the same time, down payments are being identified as the biggest barrier for many would-be buyers. Libro’s senior manager of home financing, Firas Halabi, said the program could open the ownership door for people grappling to come up with a down payment. “A lot of individuals don’t have an issue making the monthly payments,” he said. “Some people are already paying rent in excess of $3,000 or $4,000 a month ― they just never had the ability to come up with the down payment.” Read more: Ironstone Building | London Free Press | | | Six-episode workplace comedy to put London vs. London centre stage Ever been abroad, told someone you’re from London, and had that conversation? “No, no, there’s another London… ” That’s basically the premise of a new workplace comedy TV series that is set to start filming in London. Called 18 to 35, the show was the winner of the pitch competition at the 2023 Forest City Film Festival and eventually got picked up by Bell Fibe TV1 for production. The premise, said creators Charlie Whalley and Rahul Chaturvedi, revolves around a mid-30s Indian-Canadian woman who, after losing her job in New York City, returns home to London to manage her father’s youth hostel where guests arrive thinking they were travelling to England. The show also has some prominent names attached to it ― its executive producer is Andrew Phung, best known as Kimchee in CBC’s Kim’s Convenience. Shooting is expected to take place at a number of London locations, including the airport and Citi Plaza. The upshot: For Film London, which has been doing a lot of legwork to try to bring more productions to town, it’s a nice win. The production might not be huge, but Film London’s Andrew Dodd said it is significant in that they’ve got London playing London, for once. “It’s pretty rare to see the place actually representing itself on screen,” he told the CBC News London. “Usually, we’re doubling for either an anonymous location or a city in the USA. So, to not only see a Canadian city, an Ontario city, but actually have London be an integral part of the story is a unique and really fun opportunity.” Read more: CBC News London | | | Toyota RAV4 production to go exclusively hybrid at Woodstock and Cambridge assembly plants A bit of good news in the auto industry department: Toyota Canada announced this week that it would be transitioning production at its Woodstock and Cambridge plants to exclusively produce the hybrid RAV4, starting early next year (the plants currently produce both gasoline-powered and hybrid RAV4s). The move largely won’t affect the 8,500 or so workers at the two plants, and workers will remain on the job while the transition takes place. “Our vehicles are in high demand, and Toyota is continuing to build to plan,” Toyota spokesperson Michael Bouliane told The London Free Press. The hybrid RAV4 is one of Toyota’s more popular vehicles, which should maintain production at the two plants for some time. “The hybrid is faster turning. It has more sales orders on it and the consumers and dealers are asking for it. It was pretty clear that the consumer is voting for the hybrid,” said Toyota’s David Christ. The upshot: It looks as if Toyota is betting against Trump’s tariffs in the long run; they aren’t rushing to move production to the U.S. or halting production in Canada, even though around 84 per cent of the plants’ production is destined for export. “They approach North America as one market,” said the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing’s Brendan Sweeney. “There’s no panic at Toyota. They’re not looking just at quarterly returns and shareholder value as American companies do. If there’s a hit to profits, it will suffer that for a broader, long-term strategy.” Read more: London Free Press | | | WSIB workers strike ahead of relocation to former 3M headquarters Unionized staff at the Workplace Safety Insurance Board of Ontario are walking the picket lines this week. It’s the first time the workers from the WSIB have ever gone on strike. “Our union is picketing because we have not been able to get a fair collective agreement,” said Suzanne Flannery, unit coordinator for the London office of the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU) Local 1750. There are around 240 unionized workers in London, and 3,600 across the province, whose contract expired at the end of April. Flannery has said that members are routinely working late to handle “unsustainable” workloads. Both sides are accusing the other of bad-faith bargaining: the union said their employer just keeps re-tabling the same proposals they rejected, while the WSIB is accusing the union of walking away from the table entirely. “The union executive walked away and they haven’t been back,” said the WSIB’s Aaron Lazarus. “They have a duty to their members to offer a serious counter-proposal.” The upshot: It’s a fair bit of turbulence for the WSIB, which is supposed to soon officially mark the grand opening of its new headquarters in the former 3M Canada building on Tartan Drive, which it purchased in 2023 for $21 million. There’s no changes being suggested to that plan, but the acrimony is likely blunting what was generally seen as a good news story for the expanded London workforce. For now, the two sides seem pretty far apart on issues like wage increases (the WSIB has offered 4.5 per cent over three years) and outsourcing (the union is unhappy that the WSIB has been contracting out services to U.S.-based firms). Read more: Toronto Star | CTV News London | | | Dispatch: May 30, 2025 A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week. View listings here | | | | |