Teck to sell coal business, Canada squanders critical minerals revolution and Hazelview halts redemptions: Business and investing news for November 19

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Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of the Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.

Teck to sell coal business to Glencore, Nippon Steel and Posco in US$8.9-billion deal

Teck Resources Ltd. agreed to sell its coal business to Swiss commodities trading giant Glencore PLC and two Asian steelmakers in a US$8.9-billion transaction. The deal requires federal approval, and will be closely scrutinized by the federal government before it goes ahead. The Vancouver-based mining company has been fielding offers for its core metallurgical coal business since the spring, when an earlier plan to spin it off was cancelled because there was not enough shareholder support. Founded in 1913, Teck is Canada’s largest diversified mining company, a major employer in British Columbia and one of the oldest miners in the country.

How Canada – and Bay Street – squandered the chance to finance the critical minerals revolution

In the latest from The Globe’s Mission Critical series, Tim Kiladze reports that critical minerals such as nickel, copper and lithium are crucial for the energy transition, because they are the core materials used in the green power sources such as EV batteries and solar panels. Yet most of the junior mining companies that are hunting for them are barely treading water, unable to finance the next phases of their exploration. Plus, badly-burned investors are scared to touch the sector.

The holiday job market is hitting the skids

As of early November, holiday job postings on Indeed Canada were down 30 per cent from last year, according to a report from the job-search site. As a share of total postings, holiday job ads aren’t as prevalent as in the years before COVID-19. This could reflect “a shift to e-commerce sales, changes in foot traffic at large urban malls, and different commuting patterns surrounding the rise of remote work,” senior economist Brendon Bernard said in the report. Take a closer look in this week’s Decoder.

Vet technician, 33, is scraping by in a small city Ontario house her parents paid for: ‘It’s a lot of guilt’

The latest Paycheque Project speaks with a 33-year-old vet tech with more than 15 years of work experience, who’s dependent on financial help from her parents. She earns a $35,000 salary as a registered veterinary technician, which works out to about $2,500 a month after taxes. She tops up her income with an average of $350 a month from extra shifts at another clinic. She has no savings, no investments and does not go on holidays. Her top financial concern is that she’s “going to have to work until I’m 99 years old … there’s no contingency plan.”

Loblaw and Metro report higher sales, quarterly profit as they face scrutiny over food price inflation

Loblaw reported $18.3-billion in revenue for its third quarter, ended Oct. 7, up 5 per cent compared with the same period last year. Metro’s revenue was $5.1-billion for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2023, ended Sept. 30. Those results included an extra week in its fiscal year; excluding the impact of that added week, revenue grew by 5.4 per cent. Both pushed back against criticism that retailers are not doing enough to fight food inflation, saying they are negotiating with suppliers who continue to ask for further price increases on their products.

Private real estate investor Hazelview halts redemptions on $1.4-billion fund, pitting retail buyers against private equity backer

Hazelview Investments halted redemptions on its $1.4-billion Four Quadrant fund, a move that prevents its retail investors from cashing out. The private money manager raised $200-million from Ares Capital in late 2022 by creating a new class of preferred share units for the global private equity firm. The preferred units promise Ares 7.95 per cent annually for three years, cash that Hazelview could otherwise have used to fund redemptions or distributions. Previously, redemptions were limited to 5 per cent of the fund’s total value each quarter, but in October all pending redemption requests were suspended until the end of March, according to an investor presentation.

Now that you’re all caught up, test your knowledge with our weekly business and investing news quiz and prepare for the week ahead with the Globe’s investing calendar.

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