Tausi Insider

Home Capital Group Inc. HCG-T has signed deal to be acquired by Smith Financial Corp. that values the company at $1.7-billion. More to come. https://www.tausiinsider.com/home-capital-signs-deal-to-be-acquired-by-smith-financial/?feed_id=333477&_unique_id=647fa6440a617

The entry to the Home Capital Group's headquarters is seen at an office tower in the financial district of Toronto on May 1, 2017. Chris Helgren/Reuters Five years ago, Home Capital Group Inc. HCG-T was on the ropes. Financier Stephen Smith was one of several investors offering to rescue the Canadian mortgage lender. Home Capital’s board opted instead to accept a lifeline from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRK-B-N. In an interview at the time, the Oracle of Omaha said he took a 19.9-per-cent stake because he believed Home Capital could consistently make money serving clients who can’t get loans from banks, because there will always be “a lot of people don’t fit the cookie-cutter approach to borrowing that are perfectly decent credits.” Eighteen months later, Berkshire sold its Home Capital holding, after earning a 70-per-cent return. The exit helped clear the way for a $1.7-billion takeover bid on Monday from Smith Financial Corp., Mr. Smith’s family holding company. In...

Provinces peppering the public with cash to deal with soaring prices compounds inflation rather than easing it, economists say. They say the tactic used by Alberta this week and B.C. and Quebec earlier this year fails to quell inflation because having extra money means people will continue spending and demand for products and service will stay high, keeping decades-high inflation from budging. If people had less money to spend while prices were high it would weigh on inflation, they say. Inflation sat at 6.9 per cent last month down from 8.1 per cent in June. Giving money to households is “likely to contribute to the problem as opposed to solving it,” said Travis Shaw, senior vice-president of public finance at DBRS Morningstar. “It does contradict what the Bank of Canada is trying to do with monetary policy in terms of trying to take some heat out of the system and ultimately bring down inflation,” he said. His remarks come a day after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced her In...

Alberta’s New Democrat Opposition wants public consultations on a government plan that would subsidize oil and gas companies to fulfil legal commitments to clean up old wells, a major proponent of which has been working directly in Premier Danielle Smith’s office for months. “The fox has entered the henhouse,” said energy critic Kathleen Ganley. Ganley said that it appears the United Conservative government has already made up its mind to bring in the RStar program, despite criticism from an array of outside experts, rural municipalities and internal government analysts. “All indications are the government has made their decision,” Ganley said. “There should be public consultations.” Under RStar, companies would earn valuable credits for remediating old wells even though the obligation to clean up a well is part of the licence to drill it. That credit could be sold or applied against revenue earned from new production to reduce provincial royalties. Alberta Energy spokesman Scott Joh...

Photo : Andrey_Popov ( Shutterstock ) Who doesn’t love a superset? Pairing two exercises saves time in your main workout, provided the routine allows. And if you’d like to do a quick bit of extra work at the end of the day, a superset is an efficient way to fit it in. So let’s look at a few perfect pairings you can add to your next workout. But first, a little background: To do a superset, you simply do a set of the first exercise, then, while those muscles are resting, you do a set of the second exercise. You can take a brief break before repeating the pair, if needed. Repeat for the desired number of sets. Most of the supersets in this list are ones that would work well as a finisher, providing a little extra volume at the end of your workout. Try three sets of each exercise for 8-12 reps. By the way, I’m only including things on this list that are easy to set up together , because nobody wants to run back and forth between the cable machine and the squat rack. I’m also main...