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Article Excerpt

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $61 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.4 million; Market cap: $5.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) is buying The Forzani Group Ltd. (Toronto symbol FGL), which sells sporting goods through over 500 stores in Canada, including SportChek and Athlete’s World. Forzani gets 70% of its sales by selling clothing and footwear. So there is little overlap with the sports equipment, such as skates and hockey sticks, that Canadian Tire stores mainly sell. The $771-million purchase price is equal to 1.7 times the $453.6 million, or $5.56 a share, that Canadian Tire earned in 2010. The deal should close in the third quarter of 2011. Canadian Tire feels it can save $25 million in 2012 by combining the two chains’ purchasing and advertising functions. These savings should rise to $35 million a year by 2014. Moreover, the purchase will help the company negotiate lower rents at malls that have both…