File photo of James Skippen, CEO of Wi-LAN at his Ottawa offices.
Inside the Market's roundup of some of the Canadian small caps making news and on the move today. This post will be updated through the day.
Superior Plus Corp. said that, after completion of its strategic review process, which involved the review, assessment and negotiation of formal offers for the sale of its construction products distribution business, it has concluded that it is not in the shareholders' best interests to proceed with a sale at this time. "Superior intends to continue with its previously announced business transformation project to fully integrate [the division's] commercial and industrial insulation and gypsum specialty distribution operations which had been placed on hold during the strategic review," it said.
Shares in the company were down 8 per cent in early afternoon trading.
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Canada's Lundin Mining Corp. is set to buy a Chilean copper mine from Freeport-McMoRan Inc. for $1.8-billion (U.S.), an acquisition that will boost the Canadian miner's copper production significantly, the miner said on Monday. Lundin is working with fellow Canadian miner Franco-Nevada Corp. to buy 80 per cent of Freeport's Candelaria.
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Postmedia Network Canada Corp. has struck a $316-million cash deal to buy 175 English-language newspapers, specialty publications and digital properties from Quebecor Inc., including the Sun chain of papers and the London Free Press. Postmedia shares were up 11 per cent in early afternoon trading.
The deal also lifted sentiment for Canada's other large newspaper publisher, Torstar Corp., which was up 7 per cent. There could be speculation that Torstar would also consider a transaction to consolidate holdings in the media industry - or will benefit from fewer competitors.
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Glacier Media Inc. announced that, through its affiliates, it has acquired a 60 per cent interest in Evaluate Energy Ltd., a leading online provider of information and intelligence to the global and Canadian oil and gas sectors. Terms were not disclosed.
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Bankers Petroleum Ltd. announced a third-quarter operational update. Among the disclosures: average production from the Patos-Marinza oilfield in Albania was 21,865 barrels of oil per day, 6 per cent higher than the second quarter.
Jennings Capital analyst Mark Heim was pleased with what he saw, saying that Bankers Petroleum's "operational excellence continues." He reiterated a "buy" rating and $10 (Canadian) price target. "The current share price weakness is in stark contrast to the operational performance of Bankers," he said in a note. "We believe multiple expansion, not contraction, is warranted under a weaker Brent scenario, especially considering the company's ability to still generate strong growth."
Shares in Bankers were up nearly 4 per cent in early afternoon trading and was among the exchange's most heavily traded stock.
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Fission Uranium Corp. announced summer assay results from 29 holes drilled on the R780E zone at its Patterson Lake South property in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin. All 29 holes return strong to moderate mineralization at shallow depth.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Rob Chang termed the results "excellent" and noted they included the second best hole drilled to date. "This emerging world class project continues to show signs of growth," he said. "We continue to be confident that Fission Uranium will ultimately contain a resource of over 100 million pounds and note that by the year's end an initial resource for the PLS property will be announced. We expect an initial resource of between 50 million to 70 million pounds. We note that the recent weakness in FCU's stock price has the market implying a resource size of between 33 million to 73 million pounds," he said a note.
Also today, Dundee Securities elevated Fission Uranium to a top pick. It has a "buy" rating and $2.10 (Canadian) price target.
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Intellectual property licensing company WiLAN Inc. said a unit of the company has granted Nautilus Hyosung America Inc. a licence to certain patents related to networking capabilities of non-standard devices. Terms were not disclosed.
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Fortis Inc. said the Electricity Regulatory Authority has selected the proposal of Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. the corporation's operating utility on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, to build new generation capacity. Caribbean Utilities will develop and operate a new 39.7-megawatt diesel power plant, including a 2.7-MW waste heat recovery steam turbine. The project cost is estimated at $85-million (U.S.) and the plant will be commissioned no later than June 2016.
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Verde Potash said Brazil's National Council for Scientific and Technological Development has awarded a research grant of about $236,000 (Canadian) to fund a research program to further demonstrate the full range of agronomic applications of ThermoPotash, one of Verde's key products.
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Input Capital Corp. Friday night provided an operational update for its fiscal second quarter, detailing its canola deliveries and new multi-year canola streams. Input stated that it sold 4,146, tonnes of canola during the second quarter of 2015 at the average price of $463/tonne for revenue of just over $1.9-million.
"Both the volume and price are lower than expected as we were looking for the company to realize 7,000 MT at an average price of $485/MT which would have resulted in $3.4 mm in revenue, in-line with consensus," commented AltaCorp Capital Research analyst John Chu in a research note.
"We have dropped down Q2 EPS to ($0.01) from $0.01 due to the revenue short fall but expect it to be recovered in H2/F15 leaving our fiscal 2015 EPS unchanged at $0.05. While this lacklustre operational update comes-in below expectations, we will wait until the official quarterly results to be released to fully understand the performance. Recall, in Q4/F14 there was surprise revenue of $1.94 mm from canola trading activities and now with a full-time canola trader on the payroll we wonder if these opportunities might continue," Mr. Chu said.
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Yamana Gold Inc. announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the provincial Government of Catamarca, Argentina. The agreement sets the groundwork for the company and the government to work together to consolidate important mining projects and prospective properties in the province, currently consisting of the Agua Rica property and the Cerro Atajo prospect.
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OpenText Corp. said it reached a deal to settle a patent dispute with Alfresco Software Ltd. Terms of the settlement were kept confidential.
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Western Forest Products Inc. announced the consolidation of its Nanaimo-area sawmill operations as the company's $10-million investment to modernize its Duke Point Sawmill nears completion. The consolidation will increase lumber production at both of the Company's Duke Point and Saltair sawmills, and will result in the closure of the Nanaimo Sawmill Division.
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In analyst actions today involving Canadian small caps:
Leerink downgraded Tekmira Pharmaceuticals to "market perform" from "outperform" but raised its price target to $30 (U.S.) from $25. Shares opened down 14 per cent on the Nasdaq.
Canaccord Genuity upgraded Sandstorm Gold to "buy" from "hold" and cut its price target to $6.50 (Canadian) from $7.
Mackie Research initiated coverage on Touchstone Exploration with a "buy" rating and $2.10 (Canadian) price target.
Beacon Securities cut its price target on Ikkuma Resources to $4 (Canadian) from $7.50 and maintained a "buy" rating.