Topic: How To Invest

Dear Pat: I would like to have your views on Prime Restaurants Inc., particularly with regard to its ability to maintain its high current dividend yield. Thanking you in advance.

Article Excerpt

Prime Restaurants, $4.00, symbol EAT on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 6.5 million; Market cap: $26.2 million), holds certain trademarks and trade names that are used by a number of restaurants and pubs, including East Side Mario’s, Casey’s, and Pat and Mario’s. Prime Restaurants also holds trademarks and trade names used by Prime Pubs, a family of pubs that operates under the Fionn MacCool’s, D’Arcy McGee’s, Paddy Flaherty’s and Tir nan Og trade names. Prime Pubs also operates Bier Markt, a Belgian-style bar and restaurant. The trademarks are licensed to Prime Restaurants for 99 years. The company gets 3.25% of the revenues of the restaurants that use the trademarks. Prime Restaurants Royalty Income Fund first sold units to the public for $10 each, and began trading on Toronto in July 2002. On April 5, 2010, the fund converted from an income trust to a public company in anticipation of Ottawa’s tax on trust profits, which starts on January 1, 2011. As…