It’s Fairfax Financial Holdings’ Time To Shine As Company’s Strategy Gathers Supporters

It’s Fairfax Financial Holdings’ time to shine as company’s strategy gathers supporters

Fairfax Financial Holdings is assiduous about avoiding the spotlight; its founder, Prem Watsa, famous for staying out of the media. Despite all that, the company has been making a lot of news lately. More importantly, it’s good news: a mixture of acquisitions, new ventures and harvesting profits – including this week’s lucrative sale of a major…

Watch For More Takeovers In The Grocery Aisle By 3G Capital. Here’s Who Might Be Next

Watch for more takeovers in the grocery aisle by 3G Capital. Here’s who might be next

Investors are eager to see what costs 3G Capital can squeeze out of Kraft Heinz Co. and how much margin improvement is to be had, but much of the market remains focused on further consolidation. The U.S. packaged food industry has been a challenging space to operate in for the past few years, yet valuations have…

5 things you should know before you start your workday

Good morning. Here’s your executive summary of some of the most newsworthy, fascinating or amusing stories from today’s Financial Post. 1. Saudi Arabia bombs rebels in Yemen; oil prices soar Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images Yemeni civilians stands at the site of a Saudi air strike against rebels near Sanaa Airport on March 26. The price of international…

No Plans To Mess With Tim Hortons Inc’s Formula, Says New Owner 3G Capital

No plans to mess with Tim Hortons Inc’s formula, says new owner 3G Capital

TORONTO – Industry watchers or franchisees waiting for Tim Horton Inc’s new owner 3G Capital to rework the restaurant model from the ground up need not worry, executives said Thursday – they don’t want to mess with a formula that has worked well for so many years. “The starting point for Tims was very different [from…

Creative Destruction, Eh! Why There’s No Reason To Fear The Demise Of Canadian Companies

Creative destruction, eh! Why there’s no reason to fear the demise of Canadian companies

Don’t worry about the demise of Canadian companies. Others will replace them and become world beaters in their fields Some observers are concerned by the destructive nature of capitalism in Canada that has seen the demise of Nortel, the near demise of BlackBerry, and the flight of automakers to Mexico. The list goes on and on.…

How The Heinz-Kraft Merger Is Part Of A Consumer Staples Feeding Frenzy

How the Heinz-Kraft merger is part of a consumer staples feeding frenzy

If Warren Buffett likes ketchup with his mac ‘n’ cheese, it’s probably less about the taste and more because he thinks there is no end in sight for the market’s appreciation of the consumer food sector. From Warren Buffett to Bill Gates: How auto dealerships are attracting a whole new class of investor There are certain…

From Warren Buffett to Bill Gates: How auto dealerships are attracting a whole new class of investor

There are certain must-have status symbols for the rich and famous: yachts, private jets, mansions in the Hamptons – and now, apparently, car dealerships. AutoCanada shares plunge as Alberta slowdown hits car dealerships Declining consumer confidence in the oil-dependent economy of Alberta dented sales at AutoCanada Inc.’s car dealerships in the first two months of the…

Valeant Pharmaceutical Inc’s Mixed Group Of Owners Find A Way To Work Together

Valeant Pharmaceutical Inc’s mixed group of owners find a way to work together

For a company that has made its shareholders a lot of money – a total return of 255% over the past three years – Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc’s share register has a different look. Valeant to team up with Bill Ackman on sweetened bid for Salix: report Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc is planning to team up with…

Agrium Inc activist investor ValueAct happy to keep hands off and enjoy profits

Agrium Inc.’s second go-around with a big U.S. activist investor is going a lot smoother than the first one. When ValueAct Capital Management LP revealed that it owned 5.7% of Agrium last October, some investors speculated that it might push for aggressive change at the Calgary-based company. Agrium maintained that was not the case, and that…

With a big U.S. backer, Cougar Global Investments set for major expansion

It’s a great news story that will get even better now that Cougar Global Investments, formed more than two decades back and discovered by U.S. investors about seven years back, has the backing of a large U.S.-based financial services company. This week, Cougar, a firm started by James Breech and his wife in 1993 as a…

IMF Raises Red Flag About Canada’s ‘Overheated’ Housing Market

IMF raises red flag about Canada’s ‘overheated’ housing market

The International Monetary Fund has raised an alarm about Canadian real estate in a report that says Ottawa’s efforts to tame the market have only been partially effective. As Canada’s economy absorbs the impact of a 50% decline in oil prices, its two main vulnerable areas remain its overheated housing markets and high household debt, says…

Get Ready For Canada’s “New Normal” Economy

Why Canadians should stop stressing about a economy that is stuck in second gear

OTTAWA – Get ready for Canada’s “new normal” economy, one categorized by a long period of weak post-recession growth and slower pace of job creation. Many forecasters, both private and institutional, have been downgrading expectations for the Canadian economy, which – like many major industrialized countries – is still struggling to shake off the lingering impact…

Long road back from ‘disaster’: How one bad investment nearly destroyed Forest Paper Ltd

Chad Wasilenkoff grew up in Calgary. The pulp and paper mills his company owns are in Switzerland and Quebec. His office is in Vancouver. His wife Laura and two boys, aged six and eight, “recently relocated,” to La Quinta, a suburb of Palm Springs, Calif. – good for the kind of riding Laura does, which is…

Don’t Get Addicted To Boom Times: Why Investors Should Beware Market Highs And Other Fads

Don’t get addicted to boom times: Why investors should beware market highs and other fads

Like hippie love-ins and disco, fads are often remembered with fondness by those who lived through them. This drives younger people completely bonkers, of course, but we do it anyway. And it’s little different with investing. Mark Cuban says we’re in a tech bubble – and it’s going to be worse than the bust in 2000…

Greece revokes Eldorado Gold Corp’s authorization for Skouries mining project

Greece’s leftist government has taken steps to block Eldorado Gold Corp.’s key mine in the region, prompting a furious response from the Canadian miner and its employees while leaving the project’s future in question. Investors have been watching Eldorado with concern ever since the far-left Syriza government was elected in late January. Just a few days…

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