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SASOL LTD. (ADR), $42.53, symbol SSL on New York, has developed a technology to convert coal and natural gas into motor fuels. The company is now the world’s largest producer of fuel from coal at its facility in Secunda, South Africa. It also makes synthetic fuels from natural gas at plants in Qatar and Nigeria. In addition, the company has substantial chemical production interests and produces oil and gas in Africa. It’s also South Africa’s third-largest coal producer. Sasol is now considering spending up to $21 billion to build a complex in Louisiana to turn natural gas into chemicals, diesel and other fuels. The company expects to spend $5 billion to $7 billion on a chemical plant. It would later add an $11-billion to $14-billion gas-to-liquids facility. Sasol will make a final decision on the project in 2014....

ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD, $49.07, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, reported sharply higher sales and earnings in its latest quarter. The company is the largest convenience store operator in Canada, with over 2,000 outlets. It also has nearly 3,700 U.S. stores. The Canadian stores operate under the Couche-Tard and Mac’s banners, while the U.S. stores mainly use the Circle K brand. In the three months ended October 14, 2012, Couche-Tard’s sales jumped 80.8% to $9.3 billion from $5.2 billion a year earlier. The gain mostly came from Norway’s Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA, which Couche-Tard bought for $2.7 billion in June 2012 (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). The company also benefited from higher fuel prices and merchandise sales. Couche-Tard gets about 30% of its sales by selling merchandise....

RUBY TUESDAY INC., $7.66, symbol RT on New York, has appointed J.J. Buettgen as its new president and CEO. The move comes after Ruby Tuesday’s founder, Sandy Beall, stepped down in June after heading the company for 40 years. Buettgen was formerly the chief marketing officer at Darden Restaurants (symbol DRI on New York). Darden is the world’s largest casual dining operator, with more than 2,000 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. It owns the Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn, Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52 chains. Ruby Tuesday has 712 company-owned restaurants; franchisees operate another 78. Ruby Tuesday should be a good fit for Buettgen. The company has developed a number of new concepts, including Marlin & Ray’s seafood restaurants and Lime Fresh Mexican Grills, so it needs someone with experience promoting multiple brands. As well, Buettgen has worked on turning around Darden’s well-established but underperforming Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains....

CHEMTRADE LOGISTICS INCOME FUND (Toronto symbol CHE.UN; www.chemtradelogistics.com) is one of North America’s largest providers of removal services for resource firms, such as oil refineries and base-metal processors. These companies create sulphur, acid and other by-products as part of their activities. Chemtrade converts these substances into useful chemicals, like sulphuric acid....

AIMIA INC., $14.70, symbol AIM on Toronto, owns and operates Aeroplan, Canada’s largest loyalty program, and Nectar, the U.K.’s biggest loyalty program. In addition, Aimia has interests in Air Miles Middle East and Nectar Italia, as well as Club Premier, the leading loyalty program in Mexico. In the nine months ended September 30, 2012, Aimia’s revenue rose 1.0%, to $1.63 billion from $1.61 billion a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, earnings per share rose 33.8%, to $1.03 from $0.77. The company’s cost per mile awarded dropped significantly, partly because it is making better use of its computer systems. Redemptions also fell. Aimia continues to diversify its operations geographically. That’s offsetting the risk of its Canadian business: Air Canada, a major Aeroplan partner, is vulnerable to labour disputes that can disrupt its service....

WESTJET AIRLINES LTD., $18.17, symbol WJA on Toronto, reports that its revenue rose 11.8% in the three months ended September 30, 2012, to $866.5 million from $775.3 million a year earlier. Demand for the company’s flights remains high, and it has entered into new partnerships with other airlines; these were the main reasons for the increase. WestJet’s load factor rose to a record 84.6%. Load factor is the percentage of available seats that are occupied by paying passengers. More important, the rise came despite the fact that the company increased its capacity by 2% to meet higher demand....

AIMIA INC., $15.34, symbol AIM on Toronto, has agreed to raise its stake in the loyalty program of Grupo Aeromexico, Mexico’s biggest airline. Aimia will pay $88 million U.S. to raise its interest in Club Premier Loyalty & Marketing to 49% from 29%. Grupo Aeromexico will continue to own 51%. Club Premier is Mexico’s leading loyalty program, with more than 2.8 million members and 50 partners. Club Premier members can earn and redeem points on Aeromexico, which offers 550 daily flights throughout the Americas and to Europe and Asia. As well, members can earn points on 14 other airlines, including China Eastern, Delta and Air France-KLM. They also get points for using their American Express and Banamex co-branded credit cards....

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE CORP., $50.66, symbol WYN on New York, reported higher revenue and earnings in the latest quarter. In the three months ended September 30, 2012, Wyndham’s revenue rose 4.5%, to $1.27 billion from $1.21 billion a year earlier. The company gets most of its revenue from vacation rather than business travel, and vacation bookings rose in the latest quarter. That helped push up Wyndham’s occupancy rate by 1.9%. Before one-time items, earnings rose 20.2%, to $1.13 a share from $0.94. The company continues to buy back its stock. In the latest quarter, it repurchased 2.6 million shares for $133 million. In all of 2011, it bought back 28.7 million shares for $902 million....

CALIAN TECHNOLOGIES (Toronto symbol CTY; www.calian.com) operates in two areas: the business and technology services division (which supplies 70% of Calian’s revenue) provides engineers, health care workers and other skilled professionals to clients on a contract basis. The systems engineering division (30% of revenue) sells hardware and software for testing, operating and managing satellite and other communication systems. In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Calian’s revenue rose 1.4%, to $59.3 million from $58.5 million a year earlier. Earnings rose slightly, to $3.48 million, or $0.45 a share, from $3.45 million, or $0.45 a share....

AMERIGO RESOURCES, $0.59, symbol ARG on Toronto, jumped over 11% this week after the company reported higher copper production in the latest quarter. The company processes copper and molybdenum from the waste rock from Chile’s El Teniente, the world’s largest copper mine. This contract runs through 2021. Amerigo has a further agreement to process material from the nearby Colihues tailings pond. Amerigo gets 94% of its revenue by processing copper. The remaining 6% comes from molybdenum....