BRP (DOOO) 40-F 2021 FY Annual report (Canada)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 40-F

REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12 OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR            

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13(a) OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021                     Commission File Number: 001-38648                    

BRP Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

Not Applicable

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English (if applicable))

Quebec, Canada

(Province or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

3799

(Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number (if applicable))

N/A

(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number (if applicable))

726 Saint-Joseph Street

Valcourt, Quebec

Canada, J0E 2L0

(450) 532-6154

(Address and telephone number of Registrant’s principal executive offices)

BRP US Inc.

10101 Science Drive

Sturtevant, WI 53177

(262) 884-5000

(Name, address (including zip code) and telephone number

(including area code) of agent for service in the United States)

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act.

Title of each class	Trading Symbol(s)	Name of each exchange on which registered
Subordinate Voting Shares	DOOO	The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act.

None

(Title of Class)

None

(Title of Class)

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act.

None

(Title of Class)

For annual reports, indicate by check mark the information filed with this Form:

[x] Annual information form [x] Audited annual financial statements

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report:

42,652,906 Subordinate Voting Shares and 43,891,671 Multiple Voting Shares

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

[x] Yes [ ] No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files).

[x] Yes [ ] No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Emerging growth company [ ]

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. [ ] 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. [x] 

PRINCIPAL DOCUMENTS

The following documents have been filed as part of this Annual Report on Form 40-F:

A. Annual Information Form

The Registrant’s Annual Information Form for the year ended January 31, 2021 is attached as Exhibit 99.1 to this Annual Report on Form 40-F and is incorporated by reference herein.

B. Audited Annual Financial Statements

The Registrant’s audited annual consolidated financial statements for the year ended January 31, 2021, including the report of the independent registered public accounting firm with respect thereto, are attached as Exhibit 99.2 to this Annual Report on Form 40-F and are incorporated by reference herein.

C. Management’s Discussion and Analysis

The Registrant’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the year ended January 31, 2021 is attached as Exhibit 99.3 to this Annual Report on Form 40-F and is incorporated by reference herein.

CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

The Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer are responsible for establishing and maintaining the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures as well as its internal control over financial reporting, as those terms are defined in National Instrument 52-109 – Certification of Disclosure in Issuers’ Annual and Interim Filings of the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and Rule 13a-15(e) and Rule 15d-15(e) under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

Disclosure controls and procedures

The President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer have designed, or caused to be designed under their supervision, disclosure controls and procedures in order to provide reasonable assurance that:

• material information relating to the Company has been made known to them; and

• information required to be disclosed in the Company’s filings is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in securities legislation.

An evaluation of the design and effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures was carried out under the supervision of the President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer. Based on this evaluation, the President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer concluded, as of January 31, 2021, that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were ineffective as a result of a material weakness identified in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting, which is further described below. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

The President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer have designed, or caused to be designed under their supervision, such internal control over financial reporting to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with IFRS.

An evaluation of the design and effectiveness of the Company’s internal controls over financial reporting was carried out under the supervision of the President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer. In making this evaluation, the President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013). Based on this evaluation, the President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer concluded, as of January 31, 2021, that the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was ineffective as a result of an identified material weakness.

As previously disclosed throughout Fiscal 2021, management determined it did not design and maintain effective information technology general controls (ITGCs) in the areas of user access security, system change management and job processing for certain information technology (IT) systems that support the Company’s financial reporting processes. Management concluded these deficiencies in aggregate resulted in a material weakness. As a result, automated controls and manual controls that are dependent on the completeness and accuracy of information derived from the affected IT systems were ineffective because they could have been adversely impacted. There were no material adjustments to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for the period ended January 31, 2021 and prior, however, as a result of the material weakness identified a possibility exists that material misstatements in the Company’s financial statements would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis in the future.

Management will continue to design and implement certain remedial measures throughout Fiscal 2022 including the design, review and appropriate modification of access in the affected systems, in addition to monitoring controls to prevent and detect inappropriate or unauthorized access or activities. In addition, various aspects of the logical access process will be automated to reduce the possibility of manual error. Management will also work with control owners to improve the quality of evidence retained to support the operation of change management controls.

The Company has and will continue to take actions to remediate the material weakness, but the weakness will not be considered fully remediated until the applicable controls operate for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that these controls are operating effectively. No assurance can be provided at this time that the actions and remediation efforts will effectively remediate the material weakness described above.    

The President and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer do not expect that disclosure controls and procedures or internal control over financial reporting will prevent all misstatements. The design of a system of internal controls is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that the design will succeed in achieving the stated goals under all potential future conditions. Nevertheless, management has designed and implemented controls to mitigate this risk to the extent practicable.

Notwithstanding the material weakness, management has concluded that the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements as at and for the year ended January 31, 2021 present fairly, in all material respects, the Company’s financial position, results of operations, changes in equity and cash flows in accordance with IFRS. There were no material adjustments to the Company’s audited consolidated financial statement for the year ended January 31, 2021 and there were no changes to previously released financial results.

The effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting as of January 31, 2021 has been audited by Deloitte LLP, the Company’s independent auditors. Deloitte LLP’s opinion, as stated in their report, is consistent with management’s report on internal control over financial reporting as set forth above.

Changes in internal control over financial reporting

There were no changes in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting during the three- and twelve-month periods ended January 31, 2021, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.

Attestation report of registered public accounting firm

The attestation report of Deloitte LLP on management’s internal control over financial reporting is filed as Exhibit 99.2 to this annual report on Form 40-F, and is incorporated herein by reference.

NOTICES PURSUANT TO REGULATION BTR

There were no notices required by Rule 104 of Regulation BTR that the Registrant sent during the year ended January 31, 2021 concerning any equity security subject to a blackout period under Rule 101 of Regulation BTR.

AUDIT COMMITTEE FINANCIAL EXPERT

The Registrant’s board of directors (the “Board of Directors”) has determined that it has at least one audit committee financial expert (as such term is defined in item 8(a) of General Instruction B to Form 40-F) serving on its audit committee (the “Audit

Committee”). Michael Hanley has been determined by the Board of Directors to be such audit committee financial expert and is independent (as such term is defined by the Nasdaq Stock Market’s corporate governance standards applicable to the Registrant).

Mr. Hanley is a Corporate Director with over 25 years of experience in senior management roles and corporate governance. He is the Lead Director on the board of directors of Nuvei Corporation and is the Chair of its Audit Committee as well as a member of its Governance Human Resources and Compensation Committee. He is a member of the board of directors and of the Audit Committee of ShawCor Ltd. He also sits on the board of directors of LyondellBasell Industries N.V. and chairs its Audit Committee in addition to being a member of its Health, Safety, Environment and Operations Committee. In addition, he is a member of the board of directors of ExCell Thera Inc. He was on the board of directors, the Audit Committee and the Human Resources and Compensation Committee of Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. from 2015 to 2019. He was also on the board of directors and the Audit Committee of Le Groupe Jean Coutu (PJC) Inc. from 2016 until the company was acquired by Metro Inc. in 2018. Prior to that, Mr. Hanley held senior management positions for several years. He was Senior Vice-President, Operations and Strategic Initiatives at National Bank of Canada. He also held a number of positions at Alcan Inc., including Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, and President and CEO of the Global Bauxite and Alumina business group. He was also Chief Financial Officer of two Canadian public companies, namely Gaz Métro (now Énergir) and St-Laurent Paperboard Inc. Mr. Hanley is a chartered professional accountant and has been a member of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec (CPA) since 1987.

The SEC has indicated that the designation of Mr. Hanley as an audit committee financial expert does not make him an “expert” for any purpose, impose on him any duties, obligations or liability that are greater than the duties, obligations or liability imposed on him as a member of the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors in absence of such designation, or affect the duties, obligations or liability of any other member of the Audit Committee or Board of Directors.

CODE OF ETHICS

The Registrant has adopted a Code of Ethics and Conduct that applies to all directors, officers and employees of the Registrant and its subsidiaries. A copy of the Code of Ethics can be obtained, free of charge, on the Registrant’s website (www.brp.com) or by contacting the Registrant at (450) 532-6154.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES

The following table sets out the fees billed to the Registrant by Deloitte LLP for professional services rendered for the fiscal period ended January 31, 2021 and January 31, 2020. During this period, Deloitte LLP was the Registrant’s only external auditor.

(in Canadian dollars)	Year ended       January 31, 2021	Year ended       January 31, 2020
Audit Fees(1)	$  3,305,068	$  3,418,539
Audit-Related Fees(2)	576,069	901,024
Tax Fees(3)	157,049	156,065
All Other Fees(4)	-	229,311
Total Fees Paid	$  4,038,186	$  4,704,939

Notes:

1. “Audit Fees” include fees necessary to perform the annual audit or reviews of the consolidated financial statements.

2. “Audit-Related Fees” include fees for assurance and related services by the independent auditor that are reasonably related to the performance of the audit or review of the Company’s financial statements other than those included in “Audit Fees,” such as advisory on accounting and reporting matters.

3. “Tax Fees” include fees for all tax services other than those included in “Audit Fees” and “Audit-Related Fees.” This category includes fees for tax compliance, tax advice and tax planning.

4. “Other Fees” include fees for products and services provided by the independent auditor other than those included above.

The Registrant’s Audit Committee is responsible for pre-approval of all audit services and permitted non-audit services provided to the Registrant or its subsidiaries by Deloitte LLP. The Audit Committee has delegated to the Chair of the Audit Committee, who is independent, the authority to act on behalf of the Audit Committee with respect to the pre-approval of all

audit and permitted non-audit services provided by its external auditors from time to time. Any approvals by the Chair are reported to the full Audit Committee at its next meeting. All of the services described in footnotes 2, 3 and 4 under “Principal Accountant Fees and Services” above were approved by the Audit Committee pursuant to paragraph (c)(7)(i)(C) of Rule 2-01 of Regulation S-X.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE

The Registrant has a separately designated standing Audit Committee established in accordance with section 3(a)(58)(A) of the Exchange Act. The members of the Audit Committee are Michael Hanley, Estelle Métayer, Nicholas Nomicos and Katherine Kountze.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

The Registrant is a “foreign private issuer” as defined in Rule 3b-4 under the Exchange Act and its Subordinate Voting Shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) and The Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”). Nasdaq Listing Rule 5615(a)(3) permits a foreign private issuer to follow its home country practices in lieu of certain requirements in the Nasdaq Listing Rules. The following is a summary of the significant ways in which the Registrant’s corporate governance practices differ from those required to be followed by U.S. domestic issuers under Nasdaq’s corporate governance standards. In addition, the Registrant is currently a “controlled company” as defined in the Nasdaq Listing Rules. Upon ceasing to be a “controlled company”, as a foreign private issuer, the Registrant intends to continue to follow Canadian corporate governance practices and TSX rules in lieu of the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq. Except as described below, the Registrant is in compliance with the Nasdaq corporate governance standards in all significant respects.

• Quorum Requirements. Rule 5620(c) of the Nasdaq Listing Rules requires that the minimum quorum requirement for a meeting of shareholders is 33.33% of the outstanding shares of its common voting stock. In addition, Rule 5620(c) requires that an issuer listed on Nasdaq state its quorum requirement in its bylaws. The Registrant follows the requirements of the Canada Business Corporations Act with respect to quorum requirements. The quorum requirement for a meeting of shareholders is set forth in the Registrant’s by-laws, which require not less than 25% of the issued and outstanding shares entitled to vote at the meeting to be present in person or represented by proxy and at least two persons entitled to vote at the meeting actually present.

• Shareholder Approval. Sections 5635(a) through (d) of the Nasdaq Listing Rules require an issuer to obtain shareholder approval prior to certain issuances of securities, including (i) the acquisition of the stock or assets of another company; (ii) equity-based compensation of officers, directors, employees or consultants; (iii) a change of control; and (iv) private placements. The Registrant does not follow this rule. Instead, the Registrant complies with applicable TSX rules. Such rules require issuers to obtain shareholder approval prior to a distribution of common shares (other than in respect of public offerings) that involve the sale of more than 25% of the issuer’s outstanding common shares prior to the transaction. In addition, under TSX rules (1) the creation of, or certain material amendments to, equity compensation plans require shareholder approval and (2) the sale of common shares at a discount to officers and directors requires shareholder approval in specified circumstances.

• Compensation Committee. The Registrant follows applicable Canadian laws with respect to compensation consultants, legal counsel and other advisers to our Human Resources & Compensation Committee. Applicable Canadian securities legislation does not specifically require consideration of potential conflicts of interest on the part of compensation consultants, legal counsel and other advisers to the compensation committee, but best practices dictate disclosure of any such conflicts in the Registrant’s management information circular.

• Independent Directors. Nasdaq Listing Rule 5605(b) requires that a majority of a listed issuer’s board of directors be independent directors as defined in Nasdaq Listing Rule 5605(a)(2) for companies that are not controlled. Applicable TSX rules require only that listed issuers have at least two independent directors. Although the Registrant is a “controlled company” under Nasdaq rules, we follow applicable TSX requirements with respect to director independence.

UNDERTAKING AND CONSENT TO SERVICE OF PROCESS

A.   Undertaking

The Registrant undertakes to make available, in person or by telephone, representatives to respond to inquiries made by the staff of the SEC, and to furnish promptly, when requested to do so by the SEC staff, information relating to: the securities registered pursuant to Form 40-F, the securities in relation to which the obligation to file an Annual Report on Form 40-F arises, or transactions in said securities.

B.   Consent to Service of Process

The Registrant has previously filed with the SEC an Appointment of Agent for Service of Process and Undertaking on Form F-X in connection with its Subordinate Voting Shares.

SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of the Exchange Act, the Registrant certifies that it meets all of the requirements for filing on Form 40-F and has duly caused this annual report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereto duly authorized.

	BRP INC.
Date: March 25, 2021	By:	(s) Sébastien Martel
	Name	Sébastien Martel
	Title:	Chief Financial Officer

EXHIBIT INDEX

No.	Document
99.1	Annual Information Form of the Registrant for the year ended January 31, 2021
99.2	Audited consolidated financial statements of the Registrant as at January  31, 2021 and 2020 and for the years ended January 31, 2021 and 2020.
99.3	Management’s discussion and analysis of the Registrant for the year ended January  31, 2021.
99.4	Third Amendment to the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Term Loan, dated as of May  8, 2020 among Bombardier Recreational Products Inc., the guarantors party thereto, Bank of Montreal, as administrative agent, and the lenders from time to time party thereto.
99.5	Fourth Amendment to the Fourth Amended and Restated Term Loan, dated February  16, 2021 among Bombardier Recreational Products Inc., the guarantors party thereto, Bank of Montreal, as administrative agent, and the lenders from time to time party thereto.
23.1	Consent of Deloitte LLP.
31.1	Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to Rule 13(a)-14(a) or 15(d)-14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
31.2	Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to Rule 13(a)-14(a) or 15(d)-14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
32.1	Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section  1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
32.2	Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section  1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
101.	Interactive Data File.