The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Laurentian Bank of Canada has generally been successful over the years and is an important Quebec institution. The Globe's guest columnists Benj Gallander and Ben Stadelmann write that there have been hard hiccups, particularly under former chief executive officer Francois Desjardins, who left in June, 2020, after a mediocre five-year term. Just before he left, the dividend was slashed by 40 per cent, a rare happening with financial institutions in this country. Mr. Desjardins was replaced with Canada's first female bank CEO, Rania Llewellyn, who had numerous immediate challenges to face. One was that Laurentian had to compete with the Big Six Canadian banks. Competing with these monoliths when a pittance of their size is nearly impossible. In addition, Ms. Llewellyn had to attempt to do this with staff that was jumping ship in droves: About one-third of Laurentian's employees departed in her first 17 months at the helm. Losing that skillset while doing a turnaround is exceedingly difficult, irrespective of the sector. Topping this is that the bank was a technology laggard. The guest columnists suggest a takeover north of $50 is a very high probability.