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Financial ground shifts beneath would-be retirees
Fred Penney makes it clear that he has no plans to retire. The business owner based in Grand Falls-Windsor, Nfld., wants to work well into his 60s or longer. “My father is still active in the business and he’s 69,” says the 45-year-old vice-president of Labrador Concrete Products.
However, Mr. Penney is still saving for his golden years. While he may not want to spend all his time lounging...
Ride the summer stocks wave
With the S&P/TSX Composite Index down about 7.5% this month, you might be tempted to heed the long-time investment advice of “sell in May and go away.”
That would have proven to be wise the last few years—the index dropped 12.14% between May 1 and Aug. 31 in 2011—but a new report, released at the end of April, says it’s better to hang on to your investments during the summer.
According...
Small-Business Owners Face a Transition After the Sale
A little over a year ago, Shara Mendelson sold the company she had spent 12 years building.
She was excited that her business, Plum Benefits, which sells discounted entertainment tickets to corporate employees, would now be able to tap into resources that only a larger operation could provide, but she was also nervous about going to work for her parent company. The acquiring business, the Shubert...
Low stock prices whet M&A players’ appetites
When Mike Ser saw the price of Research In Motion Ltd. fall about 14 per cent in early May, he pounced on the stock.
The Toronto-based trader didn’t buy the company because he thinks it will bounce back. On the contrary, it’s the poor performance that’s attractive. The low stock price, he says, makes it ripe for a takeover.
Mr. Ser has a history of buying companies for the takeover potential....
How to expand ‘St. Party’s Day’ brand
Toronto-based events company Oxford Beach puts on more than 250 affairs a year, but a big chunk of its revenues come from one massive shindig: its “St. Party’s Day” event.
That’s St. Party’s, not St. Paddy’s, and it’s a deliberate takeoff for St. Patrick’s Day.
Created two years ago by Oxford Beach founder Billy Hennessy, the event occurs on St. Paddy’s...
Investing in the steel industry
The S&P 500 has been on a tear lately, climbing more than 20% since October. While that’s been good news for most people’s portfolios, it’s made hunting for undervalued companies a challenge. The index’s price-to-earnings ratio has jumped from about 12 times earnings back then to around 14.5 times today. One industry, however, continues to be undervalued: steel.
After three stellar...
Buffett cancer diagnosis hits stock, raises succession questions
When Susy Abbondi heard on April 17 that Warren Buffett had prostate cancer, she quickly turned to CNBC to find out just how severe the diagnosis was. Like most people, she wanted to know what had happened to the world’s most famous investor. But she had another reason to tune in: her company owns Berkshire Hathaway stock.
The president of Montreal-based Duncan Ross Associates has owned the...
Higher resource prices lead to more deals done
This has been a busy year for Brian Pukier, a partner with law firm Stikeman Elliott LLP and head of its Toronto mergers and acquisitions group. After a slow summer last year, the M&A space is finally back to normal, he says. “We’d always like more deals, but our firm is keeping busy,” he says.
Mr. Pukier’s firm does a lot of work in the resource space; he’s seen a lot of deals...
Bryan Borzykowski is a Toronto-based writer and editor working mainly for business publications. He writes for the New York Times, Canadian Business magazine, Globe and Mail, Bloomberg Businessweek Custom Publishing, Toronto Star, MoneySense and more. Bryan's the editor of Review magazine and is a senior editor with Connected for Business magazine. He's also a contributing writer with Hello! Canada and was once a weekly music columnist for Metro News. He's been nominated for several National Magazine Awards and he's co-authored