Why Warren Buffett Is Worth $73 Billion – And You’re Not

Why Warren Buffett is worth $73 billion – and you’re not

Much of the financial world is all abuzz over the 50th annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, released this past weekend. Financial journalists, amateur Buffett sleuths, Graham & Dodd aficionados and just about everyone I know spent some quality time this weekend with this letter. They are all trying to identify that one pearl of…

David Rosenberg: Europe is the market to watch now

It’s been quite the start to the year with practically everything we saw through January – equity market weakness, a big bond rally, the further plunge in oil prices, the Canadian dollar slide, and the corresponding strength in the U.S. dollar against all currencies – reversing course in February. Let’s start with the oil price. I…

3 Canadian Asset Management Stocks For Value Investors

3 Canadian asset management stocks for value investors

The Canadian wealth management space has several characteristics that attract investors including solid cash flow, low capital requirements, recurring fee revenue and decent growth. As a result, value opportunities are hard to come by since multiples tend to be higher than other financial sector stocks. But when they do pop up, investors need to be nimble…

The Art Of Financing A Deal: Fairfax, Valeant And Northland Take Different Approaches

The art of financing a deal: Why Fairfax, Valeant and Northland took different approaches

Make an acquisition and then determine how to finance it underpins about 40% of the equity that’s raised each year in Canada. In what form that equity is raised is part science, part art, but all what the market will accept. Over the past week, details of three M&A related financings have been outlined. All three…

Big 6 Banks May Face Commercial Loan Losses – Analyst: Canada

Big 6 banks may face commercial loan losses – analyst

It’s tough to draw too much from HSBC Canada’s results given that the bank is running off its consumer lending portfolio, which was a big driver of its year-over-year decline in both revenues and profits. But there are some cautionary items from its Q4 2014 results that are relevant to Canada’s Big 6 banks. Gabriel Dechaine,…

Low oil prices to hurt Canadian banks more than U.S. counterparts

A protracted period of low oil prices will negatively impact Canada’s major banks more than it will their regional neighbours to the south, says Moody’s Investor Services. “For Canada’s major banks, the credit costs on energy-sector loans would rise if oil prices were to remain low for too long, which would hurt the banks’ profitability,” said…

Drachma diplomacy: What would life after the EU look like for Greece?

A Greek exit may start not with boisterous rallies in Syntagma Square, but quietly, in the dead of an Athenian night. If Greece’s ruling Syriza Party and its partners were to make that momentous decision, Greek banks would clandestinely get word the country is abandoning the eurozone and switching back to its own ancient currency. From…

Tim Hortons Will Become Household Name Around The World, CEO Daniel Schwartz Says

Tim Hortons will become household name around the world, CEO Daniel Schwartz says

TORONTO – Making Tim Hortons a household name around the world is its new management’s prime growth goal since its blockbuster $12.5-billion merger with Burger King in December. But will a double-double with a chocolate dip doughnut resonate well with consumers in Bangalore? “Why this deal makes sense is not about synergies and cost reductions,” Daniel…

Hedge Fund Manager Goodwood And GuestLogix Go Mano A Mano

Hedge fund manager Goodwood and GuestLogix go mano a mano

Round one between hedge fund managers Goodwood Inc. and GuestLogix Inc. is over. Both sides have returned to their corners preparing for round two in a battle that may go to 15 and occupy the combatants’ attention till June 30, 2015. Between now and then there’s lots of potential for wild punches, counter-punches and possibly final…

Counterpoint: The Economist’s activist hedge fund infomercial

Activist hedge funds don’t outperform randomly selected firms from the S&P 500 With its knack for tackling big subjects in a one-sided manner, The Economist in its February 7 issue imagines a dystopian world where corporate managers and boards of directors are generally incompetent, most investors are lazy; but “activists are a force for good” and…

Canada’s Oil Capitals Are Headed For Their First Housing Correction Since 2008, TD Warns

Canada’s oil capitals are headed for their first housing correction since 2008, TD warns

Home prices in Canada’s oil capitals will suffer a correction this year as plunging oil prices turn the nation’s housing market upside-down, say TD economists. Prices are on track to fall as much as 10% in Calgary, Edmonton and St. John’s Newfoundland over 2015 and into 2016 as the collapsing oil industry hits growth, incomes and…

Eric Sprott gives ‘dire’ warning on currency volatility right before one of his funds gets hit by Swiss National Bank losses

If nothing else the juxtaposition is unfortunate. Last Friday Eric Sprott, the founder of Sprott Securities, Sprott Asset Management and the largest shareholder at Sprott Inc. gave an interview with King World News. The audio of that interview is on KWN’s website along with an accompanying article, ‘Sprott Warns A Financial Tsunami Is Coming.’ The online…

GuestLogix Inc Faces Activist Investor Goodwood

GuestLogix Inc faces activist investor Goodwood

Get ready for a scrap. That was the message Friday as Goodwood Inc., an investment management firm run by Peter Puccetti and no stranger to shareholder activism, announced it wanted to “reconstitute the board,” at GuestLogix Inc. And “in the absence of a timely consensual reconstitution,” Goodwood, which has already had some discussions with the company…

David Madani Stands By 2011 Prediction Of Canadian Housing ‘Day Of Reckoning’

The economist realtors love to hate: David Madani stands by 2011 prediction of Canadian housing ‘day of reckoning’

David Madani is sticking to his guns, almost four years to the day that one of the most quoted bears on the housing market predicted as much as a 25% decline in prices. “There will be a day of reckoning,” said the Canada economist of Capital Economics in an interview. Mr. Madani bills himself as independent…

Investor Enthusiasm For Emerging Markets Wanes

Investor enthusiasm for emerging markets wanes

Debt worries and instability has meant a bad start to the year for emerging markets, which are increasingly being passed over by investors. Data from Thomson Reuters shows that hard currency debt sales in emerging markets dropped by a third last month, even though January has historically been a strong month for new issues. Volumes fell…

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