Big Acquisition Starts to Pay Off

VERSACOLD INCOME FUND $10 (Toronto symbol ICE.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Units outstanding: 40.6 million; Market cap: $415.0 million; SI Rating: Extra risk) operates 72 public refrigerated warehouses in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. Farmers and major food companies use… Read More

Updating our Aggressive stocks

FPI LTD. $7.85 (Toronto symbol FPL) earned $0.25 a share in the third quarter of 2006 compared with a loss of $0.35 a year earlier, thanks to cost controls and the extra earnings from recent acquisitions. However, sales fell 15.4%, to $174.5 million from… Read More

Income Trust Update

Our standing advice on income trusts is to limit them to one-sixth of your portfolio or less. In addition, we mainly recommend trusts that come out of trust conversions aimed at improving shareholder value.

We stay out of most new issues, trusts included. In our view,… Read More

Dilution Threat Weighs on Versacold

VERSACOLD INCOME FUND $9.10 (Toronto symbol ICE.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; SI Rating: Extra risk) is one of the world’s leading operators of public refrigerated warehouses. Farmers and food processing companies use these facilities to store perishable foods.

In December 2005, Versacold paid $396.7 million… Read More

Acquisitions Can Enhance Their Growth

It pays to be skeptical of companies that grow by acquisition. Even the most promising acquisitions can come with hidden problems and unexpected costs that devastate the buyer’s finances.

However, some companies are strong enough to overcome the drawbacks of growing by acquisition. Here are four… Read More