Topic: How To Invest

Dear Pat: May I have your opinion on the Chesswood Group? Many thanks for your valued advice.

Article Excerpt

Chesswood Group, $12.33, symbol CHW on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 9.9 million; Market cap: $119.6 million; www.chesswoodgroup.com), is the successor to the Chesswood Income Fund. It mainly operates in the specialty finance industry. The company started out in the automotive business, where it leased vehicles and ran car dealerships. Today, it continues to own Toronto-area Acura Sherway, one of Canada’s larger Acura dealers, in addition to the country’s only online new and used car dealer, cars4U.com. Chesswood’s largest division is Pawnee Leasing Corporation, located in Fort Collins, Colorado. Pawnee provides micro-ticket leasing across the U.S. Micro-ticket leasing serves the needs of smaller, start-up businesses with no credit history or poor credit history. Leased items financed by Chesswood are typically valued at under $75,000. Pawnee’s leases comprise about 75% of Chesswood’s total lending. The company recently acquired Case Funding, a U.S. legal-finance firm, for $1 million. Case Funding provides lawyers with loans based on a percentage of the value of their contingency fees if they win…