Harlequin is a big plus

Article Excerpt

TORSTAR CORP. $10.09 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 78.9 million; Market cap: $796.1 million; SI Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%) owns Harlequin Enterprises Ltd., the world’s largest publisher of romance novels. This business accounts for roughly a third of Torstar’s revenue. This week, Harlequin signed a new licensing contract with ZAO, a leading Russian book publisher. Under the terms of the deal, ZAO will sell Russian-language versions of Harlequin’s titles. ZAO plans to release over 170 titles in the first year of the contract. Harlequin has signed several licensing deals like this in the past few months. Rising prosperity is increasing literacy rates in many developing nations. That gives Harlequin plenty of room to keep expanding internationally. Torstar is a buy. buy…