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Canadian Oil Sands Trust, $31.24, symbol COS.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 484.0 million: Market cap: $15.1 billion), has a 36.74% interest in Syncrude Canada Ltd. Canadian Oil Sands’ share of Syncrude’s current oil production is about 103,100 barrels per day. Syncrude is the largest producing oil-sands project in the world, and Canadian Oil Sands Trust is Syncrude’s biggest stakeholder. Other partners in the Syncrude Canada venture include Imperial Oil (25%); Suncor Energy (12%); ConocoPhillips (9.03%); Nexen Oil Sands Partnership (7.23%); Mocal Energy (5%); and Murphy Oil (5%). ConocoPhillips recently agreed to sell its 9.03% stake in Syncrude to China’s Sinopec for $4.65 billion U.S. Based on that price, Canadian Oil Sands’ 36.74% interest in Syncrude is potentially worth $18.9 billion U.S. That’s 28.6% more than the trust’s current market cap. The sale should close in the third quarter of 2010....

POTASH CORP. OF SASKATCHEWAN, $101.95, Toronto symbol POT, moved up 4% on speculation that Brazilian mining company Vale SA is preparing to launch a takeover offer for U.S.-based potash producer Mosaic Co. (New York symbol MOS). Potash Corp. is down from last July’s high of $227 due to falling potash prices and demand. However, Vale’s potential interest in Mosaic has spurred the stock prices of most fertilizer producers, including Agrium (see below). The Vale-Mosaic speculation also helped Potash Corp. overcome a drop earlier in the week on news that Russian potash producer Silvinit agreed to sell potash to Indian Potash Ltd. for $460 a tonne (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). Indian Potash imports and distributes about 70% of India’s potash needs. The $460 price is a lot less than the $700 that Canpotex will receive from its recent contracts to sell potash to buyers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Canpotex is a potash marketing and exporting firm that is jointly owned by Potash Corp., Agrium and Mosaic. Still, Silvinit’s price is far above potash’s average 2003-2008 price of $270 a tonne....

Canadian Oil Sands Trust, $19.32, symbol COS.UN on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 481.5 million: Market cap: $9.3 billion), has a 36.74% interest in Syncrude Canada Ltd. Canadian Oil Sands’ share of Syncrude’s current oil production is about 115,800 barrels per day. Syncrude is the largest producing oil-sands project in the world, and Canadian Oil Sands Trust is the biggest stakeholder. Other partners in the Syncrude Canada venture include Imperial Oil (25%); Petro-Canada (12%); Conoco-Phillips Oil Sands Partnership II (9.03%); Nexen Oil Sands Partnership (7.23%); Mocal Energy (5%); and Murphy Oil (5%). Syncrude Canada mines oil sands and operates power-generation plants, bitumen-extraction plants and an upgrading complex that processes bitumen (or a heavy black viscous oil) into regular crude oil, which can be used by refineries to produce gasoline and diesel fuels. Syncrude’s oil-sands project is located 40 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alberta; its production is pumped to Edmonton-area refineries, which then send it via pipeline to refineries in Canada and the United States. Syncrude has enough reserves to produce 500,000 barrels per day for more than 50 years. To put this into perspective, Syncrude’s current overall production capacity is about 350,000 barrels of sweet crude oil per day....

MAJOR DRILLING. $14.31 (Toronto symbol MDI; SI Rating: Speculative) (www.majordrilling.com; 1-866-264- 3986; Shares outstanding: 23.7 million; Market cap: $339.3 million) is a large drilling company that mainly serves the mining industry. In the three months ended October 31, 2008, Major Drilling’s revenues rose 22.4%, to $191 million from $156.1 million. Excluding one-time items, its earnings rose 28.5%, to $29.3 million, or $1.23 a share, from $22.8 million, or $0.97 a share. Cash flow rose 24.3%, to $38.9 million, or $1.64 a share, from $31.3 million, or $1.31 a share. Major Drilling holds cash of $39 million, or $1.65 a share. Long-term debt is low at $32.1 million, or 9% of market cap. The shares yield 2.7%....

MAJOR DRILLING. $50.73 (Toronto symbol MDI; SI Rating: Speculative) (www.majordrilling.com; 1-866-264- 3986; Shares outstanding: 23.7 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion) is one of the world’s largest drilling service companies serving the mining industry. In the three months ended April 30, 2008, Major Drilling’s revenues rose 34.1%, to a record $170 million from $129 million. Excluding one-time items, earnings rose 42.1%, to a record $25.3 million or $1.07 a share, from $17.8 million or $0.77 a share. Cash flow rose 40.5%, to $35.3 million or $1.49 a share from $25.1 million or $0.86 a share. Major Drilling holds cash of $15.7 million or $1.08 a share. Long-term debt is low at $28.3 million....

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS, $16.76, symbol BR on New York, fell more than 7% this week after Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating on certain of the company’s obligations. S&P is concerned that Broadridge is taking on too much risk, especially at its Ridge Clearing subsidiary, given today’s difficult financial environment in the U.S. Broadridge offers services to the investment industry in three main areas: investor communications; securities processing; and transaction clearing. Broadridge mails and processes 70% of all proxy votes. The company stands to gain from the increasing complexity of securities regulations and increasing levels of share ownership. Despite volatile investment industry conditions, Broadridge continues to win new clients. For example, RBC Wealth Management has just adopted Broadridge’s Brokerage Processing Services platform. LBBW Securities, a broker-dealer servicing German institutional clients investing in the U.S., is outsourcing its trade processing to Broadridge....

MAJOR DRILLING. $59.65 (Toronto symbol MDI; SI Rating: Speculative) (www.majordrilling.com; 1-866-264- 3986; Shares outstanding: 23.6 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion) is one of the world’s largest drilling service companies serving the mining industry. In the three months ended October 31, 2007, Major Drilling’s revenues rose 53.3%, to a record $156.1 million from $101.8 million. Excluding one-time items, earnings rose 76.1%, to a record $22.8 million or $0.97 a share, from $13 million or $0.56 a share. Cash flow rose 58.5%, to $31.3 million or $1.33 a share from $19.8 million or $0.86 a share. Major Drilling holds cash of $15.7 million or $0.67 a share. Longterm debt is low at $13 million....

MAJOR DRILLING. $47.60 (Toronto symbol MDI; SI Rating: Speculative) (www.majordrilling.com; 1-866-264- 3986; Shares outstanding: 23.4 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion) is one of the world’s largest drilling service companies serving the mining industry. In the three months ended April 30, 2007, Major Drilling’s revenues rose 45.1%, to a record $129 million from $89 million. Earnings rose 91.5%, to a record $17.8 million or $0.77 a share, from $9.3 million or $0.40 a share. Cash flow per share was $1.07 a share in the latest quarter. Major Drilling holds cash of $25 million or $1.08 a share. Long-term debt is low at $18.1 million or 8% of equity....

GREY ISLAND SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL $0.58 (Toronto symbol GIS; SI Rating: Speculative) (877-434-4844; www.interfleet.com; Shares outstanding: 66.2 million; Market cap: $38.4 million) is an Internet-based automated vehicle location and mobile data services provider for the fleet management market. Grey Island’s InterFleet product features a live map display of entire fleets of vehicles. The company is now Canada’s largest automated vehicle location provider for emergency medical services. In 2006, InterFleet won contracts with the Long Island Rail Road, the City of Tallahassee, Florida and New York City’s fire department. Grey Island’s NextBus technology uses GPS and wireless communications to predict arrival times for riders. Times are distributed to riders by digital signs at transit stops, and at home via the Internet, through cell phones or by telephone. NextBus is currently in use by 40 transit systems, including those in San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Guelph, Ontario. Last year, Paul Christie, former Chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission, joined Grey Island’s board of directors....

MAJOR DRILLING. $25.40 (Toronto symbol MDI; SI Rating: Speculative) (www.majordrilling.com; 1-866-264- 3986; Shares outstanding: 23.2 million; Market cap: $587.7 million) is one of the world’s largest drilling service companies serving the mining industry. Its principal business is mineral exploration drilling for mining and mineral exploration companies. In the three months ended October 31, 2006, Major Drilling’s revenues rose 18.8%, to a record $101.8 million from $85.8 million. Ongoing earnings rose 60.9%, to a record $13 million or $0.56 a share, from $8.1 million or $0.36 a share. Cash flow per share was $0.86 a share in the latest quarter. Major Drilling holds cash of $36.8 million or $1.59 a share. Long-term debt is low at $20.2 million or 10% of equity. Major Drilling continues to benefit from high prices of nickel, copper, gold, silver and zinc, which spur exploration activity. The company has also diversified its drilling services into the energy sector. It currently has seven rigs drilling for oil and gas in the U.S....