canadian tire

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $70 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.1 million; Market cap: $5.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) operates 490 Canadian Tire stores, which specialize in automotive, household and sporting goods. The company owns these stores, but franchisees operate most of them. Canadian Tire also operates 299 gas stations and 87 Part Source auto parts stores.

In the past few years, the company has diversified its product lines by purchasing retailers with specialized products. These include Mark’s, which sells casual clothing though 386 stores, and Forzani Group, which sells sporting goods through 495 outlets, mainly under the Sport Chek banner. As well, Canadian Tire will soon complete its $85- million purchase of Pro Hockey Life, which sells hockey equipment through 23 stores.



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CANADIAN TIRE CORP.(Toronto symbol CTC.A; www.canadiantire.ca) operates 490 Canadian Tire stores, which specialize in automotive, household and sporting goods. The company owns these stores, but franchisees operate most of them. Canadian Tire also operates 299 gas stations and 87 PartSource auto parts stores. In the past few years, the company has diversified its product lines by purchasing retailers with specialized products. These include Mark’s, which sells casual clothing though 386 stores, and Forzani Group, which sells sporting goods through 495 outlets, mainly under the SportChek banner. As well, Canadian Tire will soon complete its $85-million purchase of Pro Hockey Life, which sells hockey equipment through 23 stores....

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $70 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.1 million; Market cap: $5.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) operates 490 Canadian Tire stores, which specialize in automotive, household and sporting goods....

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC., $27.11, Toronto symbol GWO, has agreed to buy Irish Life Group Ltd., Ireland’s largest pension manager and life insurance provider. The company has over 1 million clients and $50 billion of assets under management. The government of Ireland purchased Irish Life in June 2012, after its former parent company, Irish Life & Permanent, ran into financial difficulty. Great-West will pay $1.75 billion for Irish Life when the deal closes in July 2013. To put that in context, Great-West earned $2.0 billion, or $2.06 a share, in 2012. To help pay for this purchase, Great-West will sell $1.25 billion of new common shares at $25.70 each. That will increase the number of shares outstanding by 5%....

A: Partners REIT, $8.03, symbol PAR.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 25.2 million; Market cap: $202.3 million; www.partnersreit.com), owns 33 retail properties in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. In all, these shopping centres contain 2.3 million square feet of leasable space. Partners’ properties include malls and shopping centres that are mostly located in smaller cities, such as London, Ontario, and Selkirk, Manitoba. Its largest tenants include Canadian Tire, Shoppers Drug Mart, Sears, Rona and Metro. The trust completed its purchase of NorRock Realty Finance Corporation in early 2012. NorRock holds a portfolio of mortgage loans and investments connected to Canadian commercial real estate. After it closed the deal, Partners consolidated its units on a one-for-four basis....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC., $39.40, Toronto symbol SNC, fell 5% this week in response to the arrest of Pierre Duhaime, the company’s former chief executive officer. The charges relate to possible illegal payments that SNC may have paid to secure a contract to build the new McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. The company and its partners won this deal in April 2010 under a public-private partnership with the Quebec government. It’s unclear if these payments are related to the $56 million U.S. in unusual payments to agents that SNC discovered in March 2012. To put that in context, SNC earned $378.8 million (Canadian), or $2.49 a share, in 2011. This situation prompted Mr. Duhaime to step down as CEO and a director of the company. SNC also fired other executives....

BOMBARDIER INC., Toronto symbols BBD.A $3.51 and BBD.B $3.43, is having trouble getting enough parts from suppliers to build its new CSeries passenger jet. As a result, the company has delayed the new aircraft’s first test flight from the end of this year to June 2013. It still expects to deliver the first CSeries plane by the end of 2013. As well, slowing demand for its passenger railcars has prompted the company to cut 3% of this division’s workforce, including closing a plant in Germany. Severance and other costs will probably total $150 million (all amounts except share prices in U.S. dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2012. The company did not say how much these moves would save it. Meanwhile, Bombardier earned $209 million, or $0.12 a share, on sales of $4.3 billion in the three months ended September 30, 2012. The latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.11 a share....

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $27 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 291.3 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.0; Dividend yield: 5.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT).

RioCan specializes in big-box-style outdoor malls. It owns 278 shopping centres in Canada, 10 of which are under development. Most are in suburban areas, where land is generally cheaper than in towns and cities. The trust often leaves room at its malls for expanding existing stores and building new ones. This makes itseasy to add more tenants.

In the past few years, RioCan has expanded in the U.S., where it now owns or invests in 48 malls, 22 of which the trust operates through a joint venture with Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc. (New York symbol CDR). RioCan owns 80% of this joint venture and 14.3% of Cedar.

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RioCan’s units have steadily risen in the past year, mainly because its high, stable distributions continue to attract income-seeking investors. Even after this rise, we feel RioCan still has plenty of growth ahead. It continues to expand in the U.S., and it is diversifying into other real estate projects like office buildings and residential developments. Best of all, its high-quality properties and tenants give it the reliable cash flow it needs to invest in new growth projects and maintain—and raise—its distributions. RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $27 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 291.3 million; Market cap: $7.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.0; Dividend yield: 5.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT)....

BCE INC., $45.04, Toronto symbol BCE, rose 6% this week after it reported much-higher-than-expected earnings. The company also raised its dividend for the eighth time since the fourth quarter of 2008. In the three months ended June 30, 2012, BCE earned $788 million, or $1.02 a share. That’s up 18.9% from $663 million, or $0.86 a share, a year earlier. These figures exclude costs to integrate recent acquisitions and gains on investment sales. On that basis, the latest earnings easily beat the consensus estimate of $0.81 a share. Overall revenue fell 0.6%, to $4.9 billion from $5.0 billion. Revenue at the company’s traditional telephone business (which supplies 57% of BCE’s overall revenue) fell 3.9%, partly due to strong competition from cable companies....