enbridge

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA, $66.78, Toronto symbol BNS, has agreed to buy 20% of the credit card division of CANADIAN TIRE CORP., $111.29, Toronto symbol CTC.A. This business is Canada’s eighth-largest largest credit card issuer, with 1.8 million clients and $4.4 billion in outstanding loans. Its cardholders spend $1.2 billion annually. Bank of Nova Scotia will pay $500 million for this stake, and Canadian Tire has an option to sell an additional 29% to the bank over the next 10 years....

BMO S&P/TSX Laddered Preferred Share Index ETF, $14.48, symbol ZPR on Toronto (Units outstanding: 70.1 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; www.etfs.bmo.com), holds Canadian floating-rate preferred shares. Issuers include Bank of Montreal, Enbridge, BCE, TransCanada and Canadian Utilities. The ETF’s MER is 0.45%. It currently yields 4.3%. Note that the dividends you receive from this fund do benefit from the Canadian dividend tax credit. Floating-rate preferred shares pay dividends that fluctuate with changes in interest rates. The dividend rate may range from 50% to 100% of (usually) the prime bank rate. As interest rates rise, so do floating-preferred dividend yields....

ENBRIDGE INC. $52.89 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 831.5 million; Market cap: $43.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.7%; www.enbridge.com) has won approval to export some of the Canadian crude oil it ships into the U.S....

TRANSCANADA CORP. $51.57 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 707.5 million; Market cap: $36.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.transcanada.com) operates 68,500 kilometres of natural gas pipelines in Canada and the U.S. It also has interests in over 11,800 megawatts of power generation, including the Bruce Power nuclear plant.

In the three months ended December 31, 2013, TransCanada’s revenue rose 11.6%, to $2.3 billion from $2.1 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 28.9%, to $0.58 from $0.45.

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ENBRIDGE INC. $51.24 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 831.5 million; Market cap: $42.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.8%; www.enbridge.com) operates the world’s longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system. It also distributes natural gas to consumers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. As well, Enbridge has interests in 1,800 megawatts of renewable and alternative energy.

In the three months ended December 31, 2013, the company’s revenue rose 18.4%, to $8.3 billion from $7.0 billion a year earlier. Before one-time items, earnings per share rose 4.8%, to $0.44 from $0.42.

In 2013, Enbridge brought 17 projects, worth a total of $5 billion, into service. It plans to start up a further $29 billion worth over the next four years. That includes a $7-billion replacement of part of its Mainline system, which pumps crude oil from Edmonton, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin.
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PLEASE NOTE: Due to the Good Friday holiday, our next Hotline will go out on Thursday, April 17, 2014. BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA, $64.24, Toronto symbol BNS, has formally changed the name of its ING Direct subsidiary to Tangerine (www.tangerine.ca). The bank bought ING Direct from its Netherlands-based parent, ING Group, in November 2012. This business provides no-fee banking services to 1.9 million clients, mainly over the Internet. The new name will let Bank of Nova Scotia keep using the orange colour associated with the ING Direct brand....

ENBRIDGE INC. (Toronto symbol ENB; www.enbridge.com) operates the world’s longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system. It also distributes natural gas to consumers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. As well, Enbridge has interests in 1,800 megawatts of renewable and alternative energy....

ENBRIDGE INC. $51.24 (Toronto symbol ENB; Shares outstanding: 831.5 million; Market cap: $42.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.8%; www.enbridge.com) operates the world’s longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system. It also distributes natural gas to consumers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State....

iShares 1-5 Year Laddered Corporate Bond Index ETF, $19.82, symbol CBO on Toronto (Units outstanding: 93.1 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; ca.ishares.com), invests in a portfolio of short-term bonds drawn from the DEX (formerly Scotia Capital) Bond Index. The ETF first sold units to the public at $20 each and began trading on Toronto on February 25, 2009. Its MER is 0.28%, and it currently yields 4.2%....

iShares MSCI World Index Fund ETF, $34.01, symbol XWD on Toronto (Units outstanding: 5.8 million; Market cap: $197.3 million; ca.ishares.com), holds large- and mid-cap stocks across 23 developed countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S. The ETF holds 1,507 stocks covering about 85% of the market in each nation. It does this by holding units of the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (54.3% of assets), the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (41.6%) and the iShares MSCI Canada ETF (4.0%). iShares MSCI World Index Fund ETF has an MER of 0.47% and yields 1.6%....