An Air Canada plane lands at the Calgary International Airport.Reuters
Our roundup of Canadian small-caps of between $100-million and $2.5-billion in market capitalization making news and on the move today.
Gibson Energy Inc. (GEI-T) says it has a new management structure and made changes to its segmented reporting starting with the quarter ended March 31. It said the changes are part of a recent internal restructuring, which led to a "structural headcount reduction, including an approximate 20 per cent reduction in executive level positions."
The business is now being reported under four segments: Infrastructure, Logistics, Wholesale and Industrial Propane, the company stated in a release late Tuesday.
"Today's announcement underscores our commitment to create a more efficient operation while enhancing our ability to provide valuable midstream solutions to our customers. The new structure offers improved management oversight of similar business lines while creating better alignment with our customers' needs," stated CEO Stewart Hanlon. "Looking further ahead, by aligning our complementary capabilities and leveraging our core strengths, we are confident that we will deliver enhanced returns for our shareholders."
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Air Canada (AC-T) announced four new Air Canada rouge services between Montreal-Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Montreal-San José, Costa Rica; Toronto-Palm Springs, California; and Toronto-Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
"The non-stop flights will give Canadian travelers more competitively-priced options when flying to sun destinations beginning winter 2016-2017," the airline stated.
"Air Canada is solidifying its position in the Canadian leisure market by offering more flights to more sun destinations during the 2016-2017 winter season," said Benjamin Smith, president of passenger airlines at Air Canada.
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Parkland Fuel Corp. (PKI-T) is buying the Girard Bulk Service Ltd. propane business for $4.8-million.
The business, owned by 101025267 Saskatchewan Ltd., serves commercial and residential customers in southeastern Saskatchewan.
"The acquisition allows Parkland to establish a propane offering in southeastern Saskatchewan which complements our existing operations and is a growth area for Parkland's commercial business," stated Parkland CEO Bob Espey in a release.
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Capstone Infrastructure Corp (CSE-T) says the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by the Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation (OEFC) which said the OEFC "did not properly calculate the price paid for electricity generated under its power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Capstone and a number of other power producers in Ontario."
In a release, Capstone said the decision requires OEFC to "revert to its pre-2011 methodology for calculating payments under the PPAs and to pay producers, including Capstone, the difference between the payments calculated by OEFC since 2011 and the amount of the payments they would have received using the pre-2011 methodology, plus interest and costs."
Capstone said the result will be a receipt of about $25-million in retroactive adjustments for revenue claimed from OEFC.
"Going forward, OEFC will also be required to calculate and pay for electricity generated at Capstone's Wawatay and Dryden hydro facilities in accordance with the original pre-2011 methodology in their respective PPAs," the company said.
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Fiera Capital Corp. (FSZ-T) says its new Fiera Infrastructure Inc. portfolio has an agreement to buy five assets from Forum Equity Partners' Public Private Partnership (PPP) portfolio.
"The PPP assets purchased by Fiera Infrastructure are diversified across sub-sectors and geographies, and provide critical services to the Canadian public," Fiera Capital stated in a release.
The assets include the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport Pedestrian Tunnel, the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre Expansion in B.C., a social housing project in Western Canada, the South West Detention Centre in Ontario and a 50-per-cent equity stake in the Quinte Consolidated Courthouse in Belleville, Ont.
"With this transaction, Fiera Infrastructure gains high quality assets while strengthening Fiera Capital's alternative investment offering by adding important diversification to our clients' portfolios," stated Fiera Capital Chairman and CEO Jean-Guy Desjardins.
It said the transaction will bring Fiera Capital's total infrastructure asset portfolio to $1.2-billion, "which includes Fiera Infrastructure's $500-million of invested and available capital and $700-million of infrastructure debt (as at December 31, 2015)."
Forum said in a release the deal is valued at about $400-million.
Fiera Capital formed the infrastructure fund with Aquila Infrastructure Management a month ago.