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HILLSHIRE BRANDS CO., $61.82, New York symbol HSH, rose 5% this week in response to a new takeover offer. The company makes a variety of packaged meat products. Its main brands include Ball Park hot dogs, Jimmy Dean sausages and Hillshire Farm deli meats. Other foods include Sara Lee frozen desserts and Chef Pierre pies. This week, Tyson Foods (New York symbol TSN) offered to buy the company for $63.00 a share. That topped an earlier $55.00-a-share bid by Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (Nasdaq symbol PPC). Pilgrim’s Pride has now withdrawn its offer....

Bombardier recently had to suspend test flights of its CSeries passenger plane because of a problem with its Pratt & Whitney engines, which are 20% more fuel-efficient than current models. This was the first major issue with this new engine in over three years of testing.

The delay will probably add to the CSeries’ development costs, but Bombardier still expects to begin deliveries in the second half of 2015.

Uncertainty over the CSeries adds to Bombardier’s risk, and weighs on its stock price....

CAE INC., $14.55, Toronto symbol CAE, is the world’s leading maker of flight simulators for commercial airlines. It also makes simulators for militaries and operates pilot-training schools. In its fiscal 2014 fourth quarter, which ended March 31, 2014, CAE’s earnings rose 39.2%, to $60.0 million from $43.1 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings gained 35.3%, to $0.23 from $0.17, on more shares outstanding. That beat the consensus estimate of $0.20. Revenue rose 3.1%, to $583.4 million from $565.6 million. CAE received orders for eight flight simulators during the quarter, which brought its full-year total to a new record of 48. Since the quarter ended, it has sold an additional four simulators. The company’s military-related businesses also continue to win new contracts....

TORSTAR CORP., $8.15, Toronto symbol TS.B, jumped 22% on Friday after it agreed to sell its Harlequin book-publishing subsidiary to News Corp. (Nasdaq symbol NWSA), the parent company of publishing firm HarperCollins. In 2013, Harlequin supplied 29% of Torstar’s revenue and 32% of its earnings. The company will receive $455 million, which is equal to 70% of its $651.4-million market cap (or the value of all of its outstanding shares). The deal should close by September 30, 2014....

PRECISION DRILLING CORP., $12.89, Toronto symbol PD, announced two new contracts this week. The first is a multi-year deal with a client in the Middle East to build a Super Triple drilling rig, which can reach deeper pockets of oil and natural gas than Precision’s regular rigs. The company will deliver this rig in the fourth quarter of 2014. The second is a multi-year contract to supply six rigs to a project in Mexico....

LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD., $47.01, Toronto symbol L, has received approval from competition regulators for its acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. (Toronto symbol SC), which operates 1,253 drug stores across Canada. To win approval for the purchase, Loblaw has agreed to sell 18 stores and 9 pharmacies. It does not plan to close any of its 1,000 supermarkets. Loblaw will pay roughly $12.4 billion in cash and shares for Shoppers when the deal closes on March 28, 2014. The price is equal to 93% of its $13.3-billion market cap. After the deal closes, Shoppers shareholders will own 29% of the combined company....

BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $4.08 and BBD.B $4.04; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $7.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bombardier.com) has won a contract to build 65 railcars for a new public transit line in London, U.K. The company will build these cars at its plant in the country and deliver them from May 2017 to December 2018. Bombardier will also build a maintenance depot for the new line. The deal is worth $1.6 billion U.S., or 9% of Bombardier’s annual revenue of $17.9 billion U.S. The cheaper class B shares are the better choice because of their slightly better liquidity and higher dividend....

CANADA BREAD CO. LTD., $72.30, Toronto symbol CBY, has accepted a $72.00-a-share takeover offer from Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo SAB. Canada Bread’s shares are trading slightly higher than the bid. That’s because the deal lets the company keep paying quarterly dividends of up to $0.75 a share until Grupo Bimbo completes the takeover, probably by June 30, 2014. Before the deal, Canada Bread paid quarterly dividends of $0.50 a share. Investors should tender their shares to Grupo Bimbo to receive the full $72.00 without paying brokerage fees....

BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $4.08 and BBD.B $4.04; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $7.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bombardier.com) has won a contract to build 65 railcars for a new public transit line in London, U.K....

PLEASE NOTE: One week from today, on January 31, 2014, shortly after the stock market closes at 4:00 p.m. Toronto time, we will reveal our #1 U.S. Stock of 2014 to subscribers of Wall Street Stock Forecaster. You can be among the first to hear about our #1 pick for 2014. Because you’re a loyal subscriber, we are happy to offer you a bargain-priced, no-risk introduction to Wall Street Stock Forecaster. It gives you the first month—and the 2014 Stock of the Year—FREE. But you must act now. Click here. CAE INC., $14.24, Toronto symbol CAE, announced this week that it has sold five flight simulators to Air Canada and four other customers. In all, these orders are worth $70 million. That’s equal to 3% of CAE’s annual revenue of $2.2 billion....