Tuesday’s small-cap stocks to watch

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Our roundup of Canadian small-caps making news and on the move today.

Milestone Apartments REIT (MST.UN-T) said it has entered into an agreement to purchase an apartment property in Charlotte, N.C., for $32.2-million (U.S.). The 252-unit, Class-A multifamily apartment community is 95 per cent occupied at average in-place rents higher than the REIT's portfolio average. "Upon completion of this acquisition, the REIT will have a presence in nine States and 14 high-growth U.S. markets," said Robert Landin, CEO of Milestone. "The population and employment growth in Charlotte is expected to exceed that of the U.S. average over the next five years, and fits our target profile as a major U.S. metropolitan market showing favourable demographic and employment trends."

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Wi-LAN Inc. (WIN-T; WILN-Q) said it has acquired a large portfolio of patents for about $33-million. The portfolio of more than 7,000 patents were developed by Qimonda, Infineon and Siemens and covers technologies related to DRAMs, flash memories, semiconductor processes, semiconductor manufacturing, lithography, packaging, semiconductor circuitry and memory interfaces.

"This is Wi-LAN's most important patent acquisition to date," said Jim Skippen, the company's CEO. "Portfolios of this magnitude and quality rarely become available and it is always an important event in the patent world when one changes hands."

He added that "a significant percentage of the microchips currently being manufactured in the world today most likely are covered by claims associated with the patents in this portfolio. Consequently, our team is excited about the licensing potential of the portfolio, and will begin immediate efforts to launch a major licensing campaign."

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Imperus Technologies Corp. (LAB-X) filed its interim financial results for the first quarter, in which the company realized its best quarter ever in terms of sales. Gaming revenue for the three months ended March 31 amounted to $3.9-million. The "vast majority" of that revenue was generated after the company completed its acquisition of Diwip Ltd. at the end of January. "We are very pleased with results of our Diwip acquisition, and it is reflected in our strong revenue growth profile," said Daniel Kajouie, CEO of Imperus. "We look forward to building on the positive momentum of the revenue Diwip's suite of games is providing while integrating them into our mobile platforms to capture more users, and create additional revenue streams." Imperus posted a net comprehensive loss for the quarter of $2.8-million.

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Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure Ltd. (TWM-X) said it has entered into an agreement to acquire from private vendors a 63-per-cent interest in a gas processing facility in West Pembina, as well as related pipelines in the same region. The purchase price of $180-million is made up of $170-million in cash and $10-million in Tidewater common shares.

Tidewater also announced an equity financing which will raise $160-million on a bought-deal basis, with an additional option raising potential gross proceeds by $50-million. The company said the deal gives Tidewater a stake in "one of the largest natural gas processing facilities in the Pembina area."  Tidewater's CEO, Joel MacLeod, said the acquisition is "consistent with Tidewater's strategy to capitalize on Canadian natural gas liquids market opportunities through the acquisition of strategic midstream infrastructure and export assets to capture the value of infrastructure connectivity."

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Allana Potash Corp. (AAA-T) said its plan of arrangement with Israel Chemicals Ltd. has received the support of two leading independent proxy advisory firms. The deal would involve Israel Chemicals acquiring all of the outstanding common shares of Allana that it does not already own for 50 cents per share.

The agreement includes an exception for large shareholder Liberty Metals and Mining, which has opted to receive shares of Israel Chemicals instead of cash. Allana said that Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. endorsed the deal based on its "certainty of value," while Glass, Lewis & Co. said it was satisfied that Allana "took reasonable steps to identify and evaluate potential alternatives before entering into the proposed transaction."

Allana's CEO, Farhad Abasov said the deal "provides a very attractive opportunity for the company's shareholders to realize full liquidity at a substantial premium to the market price of the common shares of Allana and firmly validates the efforts of the last six years of development by the Allana team."

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Corsa Coal Corp. (CSO-X) reported its financial results for the first quarter, which featured a substantial increase in revenue combined with a much-larger net loss over the prior year. For the three months ended March 31, Corsa realized revenues of $31.4-million, which is up by 58 per cent over the first quarter of 2014, while the company's net loss jumped to $26.2-million from about $573,000 over that same time. Despite progress in containing costs, the company was negatively affected by the decline in spot oil prices, Corsa said. "North American metallurgical coal producers are enduring a time of extreme financial distress, and we expect this situation to lead to a rationalization of supply in the coming months and quarters," said George Dethlefsen, Corsa's CEO. "Corsa is uniquely positioned from a mining cost, coal quality, and infrastructure standpoint to grow both organically and through acquisitions during this trough in the market."