FirstService Corp.

WESTJET AIRLINES LTD., $26.53, symbol WJA on Toronto, has announced that its almost 3,000 flight attendants have voted 82% in favour of a five-year work agreement. The deal with the non-unionized Flight Attendant Association Board includes competitive wages, clearer work rules and a binding dispute mechanism. The agreement is important because it ends a unionization drive the flight attendants began over a year ago. The company has a great hidden asset in its non-union workforce, as many flyers find that WestJet provides friendlier service than they get from unionized airlines. The company also benefits from the fact that most of its employees are shareholders....

FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $30.49 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960-9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 34.6 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; Dividend yield: 0.6%) has completed the spinoff of its Colliers International subsidiary after handing out Colliers shares to its investors.

The new FirstService began trading on Tuesday, June 2, 2015, retaining its FSV stock symbol. Colliers International Group, $47.01, symbol CIG on Toronto, began trading on the same day under its new symbol. Shareholders won’t pay capital gains taxes on the transaction until they sell their FirstService or Colliers shares.

Colliers is one of the world’s top three commercial real estate firms, offering a range of services in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Latin America. In 2014, it had $1.7 billion U.S. of revenue.

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AIMIA INC, $14.19, symbol AIM on Toronto, owns and operates Aeroplan, Canada’s largest loyalty program, with over 4.8 million members who collect Aeroplan miles from participating companies. Members can exchange miles for flights, car rentals, hotel rooms and merchandise. The company also owns Nectar, the U.K.’s biggest loyalty program. In addition, it has interests in Air Miles Middle East and Nectar Italia, as well as Club Premier, Mexico’s leading loyalty program. On January 1, 2014, TD Bank replaced CIBC as Aeroplan’s main credit card issuer. Under a 10-year deal, TD is now launching new cards under the Aeroplan banner, including cards for frequent flyers and small businesses. The agreement also let CIBC hang on to Aeroplan accounts held by customers who also bank at CIBC, which was about half of the Aeroplan portfolio....

Here are some spinoff stocks that we still think have gains ahead. Symantec Corp., $25.26, symbol SYMC on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 690.1 million; Market cap: $17.2 billion; www.symantec.com), sells computer-security technology, including antivirus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. Symantec plans to split itself up into two publicly traded firms. One will keep the Symantec name and focus on antivirus and security software and services. The other, called Veritas Technologies, will consist of Symantec’s information-management operations. This business makes products for data backup and recovery....

FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $72.00 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960- 9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 34.5 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; Div. yield: 0.7%) plans to spin off its Colliers International business into a new firm called Colliers International Group. FirstService will hand out Colliers shares to its own investors. Colliers is one of the world’s top three commercial real estate firms, offering a range of services around the globe. In 2014, it had revenue of $1.7 billion U.S. After the spinoff, FirstService will carry on with residential property management and improvement, which had $1.1 billion U.S. of revenue in 2014. FirstService shareholders won’t pay income taxes on the transaction until they sell shares of the new FirstService or Colliers International....

FIRSTSERVICE CORP., $71.99, symbol FSV on Toronto, announced this week that it plans to spin off its Colliers International commercial real estate business. It will form a new company, called Colliers International Group Inc., and hand out shares to FirstService shareholders. Colliers is one of the world’s top three commercial real estate firms, offering a range of services in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Latin America. In 2014, this subsidiary had revenue of $1.7 billion U.S. After the spinoff, FirstService will carry on with its residential property management and property improvement operations, which reported $1.1 billion U.S. of revenue in 2014. FirstService shareholders won’t pay income taxes on the transaction until they sell shares of the new FirstService or Colliers International....

p>FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $72.00 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960- 9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 34.5 million; Market cap: $2.6 billion; Div. yield: 0.7%) plans to spin off its Colliers International business into a new firm called Colliers International Group. FirstService will hand out Colliers shares to its own investors. Colliers is one of the world’s top three commercial real estate firms, offering a range of services around the globe. In 2014, it had revenue of $1.7 billion U.S.

After the spinoff, FirstService will carry on with residential property management and improvement, which had $1.1 billion U.S. of revenue in 2014. FirstService shareholders won’t pay income taxes on the transaction until they sell shares of the new FirstService or Colliers International.

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WESTJET AIRLINES $32.05 (Toronto symbol WJA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (1-877-493-7853; www.westjet.com; Shares outstanding: 127.8 million; Market cap: $4.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) serves 91 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. Its fleet of 109 modern Boeing 737s are 30% more fuel efficient than older jets. In June 2013, the company launched WestJet Encore, its Canadian regional airline. This business now operates 14 Bombardier Q400 NextGen turboprop planes, which seat 78 passengers. In the three months ended September 30, 2014, WestJet’s earnings, excluding one-time items, jumped 30.9%, to a third-quarter record of $85.4 million from $65.1 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 32.0%, to $0.66 from $0.50, on fewer shares outstanding. This was WestJet’s 38th consecutive quarter of profitability. Revenue rose 9.2%, to $1.0 billion from $924.8 million....

FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $63.43 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960-9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 34.5 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Dividend yield: 0.7%) serves the following areas of the real estate market: commercial real estate, residential property management and property improvement. The company has more than 24,000 employees worldwide.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2014, FirstService’s revenue rose 13.5%, to $684.6 million from $603.0 million a year earlier (all figures except share prices in U.S. dollars). Excluding one-time items, earnings per share were $0.75, up 8.7% from $0.69.

Revenue rose at all three of FirstService’s divisions: Colliers International (commercial real estate), up 16%; FirstService Residential (residential property management), up 10%; and FirstService Brands (property services), up 12%. (FirstService Brands operates Paul Davis Restoration, California Closets and CertaPro Painters.)

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REITMANS (CANADA) LTD., $5.94, symbol RET.A on Toronto, is shutting down its underperforming Smart Set chain. Over the next 18 months, it will close 31 locations and convert the other 76 to other banners, including Reitmans or Penningtons (plus-sizes). The closures will result in a $2.2-million charge in the current quarter. To put that in perspective, Reitmans earned $9.6 million, or $0.15 a share, in the three months ended August 2, 2014. That was down 5.9% from $10.2 million, or $0.16, a year earlier. Reitmans had tried rebranding Smart Set, which was selling lower-priced, fashionable clothing to young women, but its efforts were unsuccessful. Its plan involved shifting the stores toward women in their late 20s and early 30s, as well as raising prices....