Asset sales bolster BNS

Article Excerpt

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $68.27 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $83.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.scotiabank.com) is Canada’s third-largest bank with total assets of $998.5 billion. The bank continues to shrink its operations in the Caribbean as part of its plan to focus on larger markets in Latin America, including Peru, Chile, Mexico and Colombia. Recently, the bank agreed to sell its pension and related insurance businesses in the Dominican Republic. It has yet to reveal how much it will receive for those operations. However, it will realize a gain on the sale. Moreover, the deal strengthens Bank of Nova Scotia’s tier one capital ratio (a key measure of a bank’s financial condition). Bank of Nova Scotia is a buy. buy…