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CAE Inc.’s CAE-T share price surged after the company reported strong civil and defence performance in its second quarter results. The Montreal-based builder of flight and health simulators saw its share price increase 18.17 per cent to $28.42 on the TSX at midday trading. CAE says net income attributable to equity holders was $44.5-million, or 14 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from $14.0-million or 4 cents per share in the same quarter last year. CAE attributes a strong consolidated-level performance in the second quarter to double-digit growth in the civil segment, better results in defence and renewed profitability in healthcare. The company reaffirmed its outlook for the fiscal year after reducing the compound growth rate to mid-20 per cent last quarter. On an adjusted basis, it earned 19 cents per share and $993.2-million in revenue, compared to an average analyst expectation of 17 cents per share and $949-million, according to estimates compiled by financial...

Emera Inc. EMA-T is putting capital spending on clean energy projects in Nova Scotia on hold as it works through the consequences of the Nova Scotia government’s imposed rate cap on the parent company of Nova Scotia Power. In a conference call to discuss the power utility’s latest financial results, Emera chief executive Scott Balfour said Friday that while the company will continue to make investments in safety and reliability of its network, it won’t be able to spend on other projects in the province due to the cap. “The last capital plan included $500-million in planned investment in the Eastern Clean Energy Initiative, including the Atlantic Loop, to fund new wind generation, transmission, infrastructure upgrades and battery storage to help facilitate the transition away from coal-fired generation,” he said. “Given the restrictions imposed by Bill 212, these cleaner energy investments have been forced to be put on hold as our capital investments at Nova Scotia Power are now requi...

Hydro One Ltd. H-T reported a third-quarter profit of $307-million, up from $300-million in the same quarter last year. The power utility says the profit amounted to 51 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30. The result compared with a profit of 50 cents per diluted share in the third quarter of 2021. Revenue for the quarter totalled $2.03-billion, up from $1.91-billion in the same quarter last year. Revenue, net of purchased power, was $1.07-billion, up from $980-million a year ago. Hydro One is Ontario’s largest electricity transmission and distribution provider. https://www.tausiinsider.com/hydro-one-reports-307-million-third-quarter-profit-up-from-300-million-a-year-ago/?feed_id=427565&_unique_id=649b208e0dec3

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. AQN-T reported a $195.2-million loss in its latest quarter and cut its financial guidance for the year. The power utility, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says it lost 29 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of US$27.9-million or five cents per share in the same quarter last year. Revenue totalled US$666.7-million, up from US$528.6-million a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, Algonquin says it earned 11 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 15 cents per share in its third quarter of 2021. In its outlook, the company says it now expects adjusted net earnings per share for 2022 in a range of 66 cents to 69 cents compared with earlier expectations for between 72 cents and 77 cents. Algonquin says it updated its guidance due to higher interest rates and inflation, delays in the construction and completion of some of its renewable energy projects, and anticipated delays in conn...

Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. TRQ-T says if Rio Tinto’s RIO-N proposal to take the company private does not go ahead its immediate priority will be to address the company’s liquidity concerns. The company says it will implement all elements of its binding funding heads of agreement with Rio Tinto, which holds a majority stake in the company, to provide it with the needed liquidity and resources to meet its obligations as it works to expand its Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia. Turquoise Hill, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, made the comments as it reported a profit of US$40-million or 23 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of US$54.4-million or 28 cents per diluted share in the same quarter last year. Revenue for the quarter totalled US$391.1-million, down from US$662.1-million a year earlier. In its outlook, the company maintained its copper production guidance within a range of 110,000 to 150,000 tonnes, while it raised it...

Canadians have been slow to turn away from variable-rate mortgages despite a slew of central bank interest rate hikes since March. It’s an unusual trend that mortgage brokers chalk up to economic uncertainty, regulations and – for some borrowers – a need for flexibility. As of August, variable-rate mortgages still accounted for 44 per cent of new mortgages, mortgage renewals and mortgage refinances, according to an October briefing by housing analyst Ben Rabidoux for Mortgage Professionals Canada, the country’s national mortgage broker industry association. What is your mortgage trigger rate? This calculator helps you estimate it Calculator: See how rising interest rates will affect the cost of your mortgage That share was down from a January peak of 57 per cent but still twice as high as levels seen before the pandemic, according to the report. And even after two more rate increases by the Bank of Canada, in September and October, some mortgage professionals report a significant sha...

A Home Depot location in Mexico City, on Jan. 15. LUIS CORTES/Reuters Home Depot Inc HD-N on Tuesday left its annual forecasts unchanged even as quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations, raising concerns about demand heading into the holiday season amid a slowing housing market. Shares in the largest U.S. home improvement chain slipped in early trade, with the number of transactions falling in the quarter as surging inflation deterred do-it-yourself customers. Mortgage rates have more than doubled since the start of 2022, cooling the housing market that boomed in the pandemic. Home Depot reiterated its full-year outlook, which Jefferies analysts said implied its fourth-quarter earnings would come in below Wall Street. Although demand from contractors, builders and other professional customers remained strong, DIY customers who had splurged on paint, tools and gardening equipment last year cut back on spending in the third quarter of this year. “Home Depot is not immune to a ...

Stelco Holdings Inc. says its net earnings for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 were down by almost 74 per cent year-over-year to $158-million, or $2.33 per diluted share. The Hamilton-based steelmaker says challenging market conditions in the third quarter, which are expected to continue, included lower steel prices and inflationary pressure. The company’s revenue was $217-million for the quarter, down 38 per cent from last year and down 18 per cent from the second quarter. The company says its revenue decrease was primarily due to a 36 per cent decline in average selling price per net ton, as well as lower shipping volumes and lower non-steel sales, all compared to last year. However, executive chairman and chief executive Alan Kestenbaum says despite inflation and downward steel pricing trends, the company saw shipping volumes increase over last quarter. The company reiterated its fourth-quarter guidance that lower prices and shorter lead times will continue to affect results thro...

The parent company of Tim Hortons has hired an executive known for leading a turnaround at Domino’s Pizza Inc. DPUKY as its new executive chair, and is giving him one of the largest sign-on executive compensation packages in Canadian history. Restaurant Brands International Inc. QSR-T is expected to announce Patrick Doyle as its new executive chair on Wednesday. He will replace co-chairs Alex Behring and Daniel Schwartz, who are co-managing partners of 3G Capital, RBI’s largest shareholder. Both Mr. Behring and Mr. Schwartz will remain on the board. The Toronto-based company, which also owns fast-food chains Burger King, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Firehouse Subs, is making the move as it seeks to boost its stock performance, which its executives believe has lagged the underlying value of the business. While the company’s share price has recovered from a significant dip during the early days of the pandemic, it is hovering around roughly the same price it reached five years ago. “W...

An autonomous driving vehicle prepares to drive without a human driver behind the steering wheel from the Loblaw office to a Superstore in Brampton, Ont., on Oct. 4. Christopher Katsarov/Tausi Insider Two Canadian grocers reported growth in sales and profits in their latest quarters, as the sector continues to face scrutiny over food inflation and its impact on people’s ability to afford basic necessities. On Wednesday, Canada’s largest grocer, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. L-T said its profits spiked by 29 per cent in the third quarter, which the company attributed primarily to growth in sales at its drugstores. Montreal-based Metro Inc. MRU-T reported that adjusted net earnings grew by 9.4 per cent in its fourth quarter. Canadian grocery store operators have faced increasing public pressure as food prices have risen at a pace not seen in decades. On Wednesday, Statistics Canada reported that food prices jumped 10.1 per cent in October, a rate that slowed only slightly from 10.3-per-cent food in...

An autonomous driving vehicle prepares to drive without a human driver behind the steering wheel from the Loblaw office to a Superstore in Brampton, Ont., on Oct. 4. Christopher Katsarov/Tausi Insider Two Canadian grocers reported growth in sales and profits in their latest quarters, as the sector continues to face scrutiny over food inflation and its impact on people’s ability to afford basic necessities. On Wednesday, Canada’s largest grocer, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. L-T said its profits spiked by 29 per cent in the third quarter, which the company attributed primarily to growth in sales at its drugstores. Montreal-based Metro Inc. MRU-T reported that adjusted net earnings grew by 9.4 per cent in its fourth quarter. Canadian grocery store operators have faced increasing public pressure as food prices have risen at a pace not seen in decades. On Wednesday, Statistics Canada reported that food prices jumped 10.1 per cent in October, a rate that slowed only slightly from 10.3-per-cent food in...

Loblaw Companies Ltd. L-T saw profits spike by 29 per cent in the third quarter, which the company attributed primarily to growth in sales at its drugstores – and attempted to send the message that it is not profiting from food inflation. Canada’s largest grocer on Wednesday reported net earnings available to common shareholders of $556-million or $1.69 per share in the 16 weeks ended Oct. 8, compared to $431-million or $1.27 per share in the same period last year. In a release on Wednesday, the Brampton, Ont.-based company wrote that its gross profit margins in food retail did not increase compared to the same period last year, when inflation began accelerating. Loblaw profited from increased sales of drugstore categories such as beauty products and cough and cold medicines, which have high profit margins, according to the company. Canadian grocery store operators have faced increasing scrutiny as prices for basic necessities have risen at a pace not seen in this country in 40 years...

NFI Group Inc. NFI-T reported a loss of US$42.6-million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of US$15.4-million in the same quarter last year as its revenue edged higher. NFI chief executive Paul Soubry says the results reflect the ongoing impacts of unreliable supplier performance, associated production inefficiencies and heightened inflation on input costs. The bus maker, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says the loss amounted to 56 cents per share for the company’s third quarter compared with a loss of 22 cents per share a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter totalled US$514.0-million, up from US$492.0 in its third quarter of 2021. On an adjusted basis, NFI says it lost 63 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted loss of 16 cents per share in the same quarter last year. The company says it is in talks with Export Development Canada, the Manitoba government and other banking syndicate members regarding credit facility covenant relief and potentia...

Women now account for a record-high share of Canada’s top income earners, but still have a long way to go to achieve parity with men both in terms of their share of top earners and the size of their paycheques. The latest high-income figures released by Statistics Canada this week show women made up 25.4 per cent of the top 1 per cent of income tax filers in 2020, a share that’s risen steadily over the past four decades. At the provincial level, women in Alberta made up the smallest share of top earners, at 21.4 per cent, while in Newfoundland women accounted for the highest share at 28.4 per cent. A 2019 study by Statistics Canada shed light on the working women who make up the top 1 per cent. They tend to be better educated than their male counterparts, are twice as likely to work in the health care sector – top one-percenter men are more likely to hold management jobs – and are less likely to be married or have children than high-earning men. While there are more women in the top ...

New Brunswick seafood giant Cooke Inc. says it has completed a C$1.5-billion acquisition of Australian seafood producer Tassal Group Ltd. The parent company of Cooke Aquaculture Inc. says the deal is the largest-ever purchase for the family-owned company since its launch in 1985. Cooke says it acquired all outstanding shares of Tassal for A$5.23 per share following approval by Tassal shareholders and an Australian court. Cooke CEO Glenn Cooke says the company is thrilled to join the Tasmanian aquaculture industry and welcomed Tassal’s 1,700 employees. Tassal harvests 40,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon annually in five marine farming zones with four land-based freshwater hatcheries and four processing facilities from southern Tasmania to the north of Queensland. It also farms 5,500 tonnes of Australian black tiger prawns from two hatcheries, three pond farms and processing facilities. https://www.tausiinsider.com/new-brunswick-seafood-giant-cooke-inc-acquires-australias-tassal-grou...

The Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT) plant is seen in Sorel, Quebec, Canada October 11, 2022. CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/Reuters The head of a hedge fund who complained to Quebec’s security regulator about Rio Tinto PLC’s preferential back door deal with two dissident shareholders pertaining to its pending takeover of Turquoise Hill Resources says he feels vindicated the giant miner has been forced to offer all minority shareholders the same deal. “The Quebec securities regulator, and any other regulator that was involved, should pat themselves on the back for a job well done,” Jeff Banfield, partner with Caravel Capital Investments Inc. said in an interview. “You literally saw a one hundred billion mining behemoth go, ‘Okay, okay, don’t get upset.” Last week, Turquoise Hill said that Quebec’s l’Autorité des marchés financier had “public interest concerns” about the preferential deal it negotiated with Pentwater Capital Management LP and SailingStone Capital Partners LLC, under which the pair w...

Dentalcorp Holdings Ltd. DNTL-T, Canada’s largest consolidator of dental clinics, is considering selling itself just a year and a half after setting a record for an initial public offering of a health care company. Dentalcorp announced Monday its board had launched a strategic review to assess its options to “unlock shareholder value.” The company raised $700-million in an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange in May of 2021. At the time it was the biggest IPO for a life-sciences company on the TSX, though it was overtaken a year later by eyecare-product maker Bausch + Lomb Corp. Inside the corporate dash to buy up dentists’ offices, veterinary clinics and pharmacies Dentalcorp’s stock made its debut at $14 a share and climbed as high as $18.36, but has since been in free fall, hitting as low as $5.65 last week. The shares rallied 32 per cent on Monday’s news to reach $8 at day’s close. Chief executive officer Graham Rosenberg said in a news release that the company’s strategic review wa...

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...

Bank of Nova Scotia BNS-T reported a lower fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, as a lull in its investment banking division dented income from its capital markets unit and compelled the lender to set aside higher provisions. Net income, excluding one-off items, came in at $2.62 billion, or $2.06 a share, in the three months ended Oct. 31, compared with $2.72 billion, or $2.10, a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected $2 a share, according to Refinitiv data. Canada’s third-largest lender reported overall net profit of $2.09 billion, or $1.63 a share, compared with $2.56 billion, or $1.97 a share, last year. https://www.tausiinsider.com/scotiabank-profit-falls-on-capital-market-slump-provisions/?feed_id=332134&_unique_id=645b38ed26a87

A prominent U.S. short-seller targeted Canadian dairy giant Saputo Inc., SAP-T sending the company’s shares falling Tuesday. Spruce Point Capital Management LLC released a 147-page report attacking Saputo Tuesday morning. In it, Spruce Point questioned the success of Saputo’s acquisitions and said it thinks a tough global market for milk consumption means the company will have increasing difficulty covering its dividend. Spruce Point says it sees 40 per cent to 60 per cent downside in the company’s shares, with a fair value of $13.75 to $20.50 a share. In an unsigned statement sent to Tausi Insider Tuesday afternoon, Saputo said Spruce Point never engaged with the company. “Saputo is of the opinion that the report is without merit and that it contains mischaracterizations and incorrect information, which are misleading and solely intended to benefit the author.” The company did not identify what it says is incorrect. Saputo said it “remains focused on its global strategic plan initia...