Our roundup of Canadian small-caps of between $100-million and $2.5-billion in market capitalization making news and on the move today.
Small-cap stocks to watch will be taking a break between Dec. 21 and Jan. 2. Happy holidays.
Granite Real Estate Investment Trust (GRT-UN-T; GRP-UN-N) said it has entered into a US$185-million committed four-year senior unsecured non-revolving term facility. Granite said intends to use the net proceeds from the term loan for general corporate purposes, including to fund development and property acquisitions.
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Automotive Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (APR-UN-T) said it has entered into new interest rate swaps totaling $126-million on its credit facilities as part of the recently announced acquisitions and expansion of its credit facilities. The REIT said the transactions, “provide a well-balanced level of annual maturities with interest rate swap terms ranging between four and 10 years, and a weighted average interest rate swap term remaining of 6.7 years.” The REIT said its fixed weighted average effective interest rate on its debt (excluding revolving credit facilities) is now 3.79 per cent.
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Boralex Inc. (BLX-T) announced an agreement to acquire the last tranche of the portfolio of wind power projects developed by Ecotera Développement.
In closing the transaction, Boralex said it will acquire eight wind power projects at different stages of development with a combined capacity of over 100 MW. These acquisitions, combined with projects currently under development by the Corporation, will bring Boralex's portfolio of development projects in France to over 1,000 MW.
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Aphria Inc. (APHA-T; APHA-N) said its subsidiary ABP S.A. has signed a letter of intent with the Argentinian state-owned Cannabis Avatãra Sociedad del Estado for cooperation agreement to cultivate cannabis. Aphria said the agreement will expand the company’s Argentinian operations into the province of Jujuy.
Under the terms of the agreement, ABP will establish a facility for the cultivation and processing of cannabis, as well as for the manufacturing of cannabis derivative products, including but not limited to cannabis oil, the company stated.
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Quarterhill Inc. (QTRH-T; QTRH-Q) subsidiary International Road Dynamics Inc. has been awarded a contract by Roadway Electric LLC to supply and maintain a statewide port-of-entry truck screening system as part of a design-build project valued at US$2.8-million for the Arizona transportation department.
IRD will supply and supervise the installation of the system at five locations throughout the state and will maintain the systems for five years as part of this contract.
Separately, Quarterhill's WiLAN's subsidiary announced it has granted a term license for certain patents to Powerchip Technology Corp. The licensed patents relate to Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and semiconductor process technologies and are part of the portfolio that WiLAN's Polaris Innovation Ltd. subsidiary acquired from Infineon Technologies in June 2015, the company stated.
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The Flowr Corp. (FLWR-X) announced it has acquired a 19.8-per-cent interest in Holigen Ltd. (Holigen). Flowr will provide its cultivation, facility design and construction intellectual property for use by Holigen in the construction of its facilities in Portugal and Australia “and for obtaining its final licenses in those territories,” the company stated.
"We believe this is a transformative transaction that establishes Flowr as a global player in the cannabis industry,” said Vinay Tolia, co-CEO of the company. “We’re using our financial strength and industry-leading cultivation expertise to gain exposure to the rapidly expanding European and Australian markets through Holigen.”
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Exchange Income Corp. (EIF-T) announced it has completed the acquisition of certain assets and operations of Wings Over Kississing for $10-million. The purchase was funded by issuing $2.2-million of EIC common shares to the vendors and $7.8-million of cash from its unutilized credit facility.
Wings is an operator of fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft in Manitoba.
"The acquisition of these operations and assets significantly strengthen our aviation operations in Manitoba," said Mike Pyle, CEO EIC. "The King Air charter operations provide us with a new charter platform, and combined with the fueling station at Thompson Airport, allows us to better serve this key travel hub for communities in Northern Manitoba."
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Clearford Water Systems Inc. (CLI-X) announced its subsidiary, Clearford India Pvt. Ltd., has signed contracts for two new Clearford One system installations for villages in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu States.
“We are pleased to see the Clearford One system gain continued traction in the Indian market,” stated Kevin Loiselle, CEO of Clearford.