Uruguay a good fit for BNS

Article Excerpt

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $56.06 (Toronto symbol BNS: Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $58.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.5%; www.scotiabank.com) continues to expand in South America. The bank recently announced two purchases in Uruguay: Nuevo Banco Comercial (Uruguay’s fourth-largest private bank by loans and deposits), and Pronto! (the country’s third-largest consumer-finance company). Bank of Nova Scotia did not disclose how much it paid for these two companies. However, both firms should add to the bank’s earnings in the first year. These are the bank’s first operations in Uruguay. However, it has been operating in neighbouring countries, such as Chile, Brazil and Peru, for a long time. That cuts the risk of this expansion. Bank of Nova Scotia is a buy. 4841 Yonge Yonge…