snc lavalin

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PRECISION DRILLING CORP. $10 (www.precisiondrilling.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 20.0%, to $0.06 a share from $0.05. The new annual rate of $0.24 yields 2.4%. Volatile oil and gas prices and a lack of pipelines have hurt drilling activity....

ENBRIDGE INC., $43.71, Toronto symbol ENB, announced this week that U.S.-based Marathon Petroleum Corp. (New York symbol MPC) will invest in its proposed Sandpiper pipeline, which would pump oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation to U.S. refineries. Under the deal, Marathon will cover $975 million (37.5%) of Sandpiper’s $2.6-billion cost. In exchange, Marathon will get a 27% stake in Enbridge’s North Dakota pipeline system. Enbridge’s share of Sandpiper’s cost is $1.625 billion. That’s equal to 1.5 times the $1.1 billion, or $1.33 a share, that it earned in the nine months ended September 30, 2013....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $43 (www.snclavalin.com) continues to win new engineering contracts despite last year’s bribery scandal. ZADCO, a joint venture headed by Abu Dhabi’s state owned oil company, recently hired SNC to design a major addition to its oil refinery. Buy.

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC., $42.59, Toronto symbol SNC, fell 5% this week after it cut its 2013 earnings outlook, mainly due to one-time losses on certain fixed-priced engineering contracts it signed between 2010 and 2012. The nature of these deals, which include hospitals, roads and unspecified projects in North Africa, prevents SNC from passing along unexpected cost increases to its clients. The company also expects that a previously announced reorganization of its European operations will cost an extra $75 million. At the same time, weak prices for gold and other commodities have slowed construction of new mining projects. As a result, SNC will probably earn $10 million to $50 million in 2013. That’s a big drop from its earlier prediction of $220 million to $235 million....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $43 (www.snclavalin.com) continues to win new engineering contracts despite last year’s bribery scandal. ZADCO, a joint venture headed by Abu Dhabi’s stateowned oil company, recently hired SNC to design a major addition to its oil refinery....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC., $44.62, Toronto symbol SNC, rose 8% this week after it said that it plans to sell all or part of AltaLink, which provides electricity to 85% of Alberta’s population through 12,000 kilometres of power lines and 280 substations. SNC could also spin off AltaLink as a separate publicly traded firm. The company did not say when it expects to complete this process. As of June 30, 2013, AltaLink’s net book value was $856.8 million. That’s equal to 13% of SNC’s $6.8-billion market cap (or the value of all its outstanding shares). The sale is part of SNC’s plan to sell some of its less important operations. The company will invest the cash from these sales in engineering projects in areas with strong potential, such as mining, water treatment and oil and gas....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $41 (Toronto symbol SNC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 151.6 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.snclavalin.com) is selling 66% of its stake in the Astoria II gas-fired electrical power plant near New York City.

The company did not say how much it would receive for this interest. However, it paid $70 million U.S. for a 20% stake in this facility in 2009.

The sale is part of SNC’s plan to sell some of its less important investments in concessions, which are rights that governments grant to run public facilities. The company will use the cash from these sales to focus on engineering projects in areas with greater potential, including mining, oil and gas, and water treatment projects.
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GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $30 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $33.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) earned $521 million in the three months ended June 30, 2013, up 6.8% from $488 million a year earlier....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $41 (Toronto symbol SNC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 151.6 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.snclavalin.com) replaced most of its senior management following the discovery of $56 million U.S. in unusual payments it made in 2011 to help win Libyan construction contracts. SNC has also strengthened its oversight and compliance procedures in response to allegations that it used bribes to win certain contracts in Quebec.

These issues haven’t stopped the company from winning new deals. For example, MEG Energy (Toronto symbol MEG) recently hired SNC to design a new processing facility at its oil sands operation in Alberta.

However, SNC lost $37.7 million, or $0.25 a share, in the three months ended June 30, 2013. That’s mainly due to a $70.1-million charge related to delays building an oil-and-gas project in Algeria. The company also set aside $47.0 million to cover potential losses on a project in Libya that it stopped working on in 2011. A year earlier, SNC earned $31.7 million, or $0.21 a share.
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