TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $12 (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 78.2 million; Market cap: $938.4 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 4.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tctranscontinental.com) has paid an undisclosed sum for privately held Groupe Modulo, which publishes Frenchlanguage textbooks for schools and universities across Canada.
Many traditional book publishers have suffered due to rising competition from cheaper e-books. However, specialized textbooks are still highly profitable, and the purchase looks like a nice fit with Transcontinental’s current textbook business: it will expand the company’s catalogue of French-language titles to 11,000 from 8,000.
Moreover, adding Groupe Modulo’s high-quality titles would be a plus for Transcontinental if it decides to expand its own electronic-textbook business.
Transcontinental is a buy.