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A real estate sold sign hangs in front of a west-end Toronto property in this file photo.Graeme Roy/The Canadian Press

Our roundup of Canadian small-caps of between $100-million and $2.5-billion in market capitalization making news and on the move today.

Home Capital Group Inc. (HCG-T) says its Home Trust subsidiary expects to receive an initial draw today of $1-billion from its $2-billion credit line provided by a facility led by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.

"Access to these funds is intended to mitigate the impact of a decline in Home Trust's High Interest Savings Account (HISA) deposit balances," the company said on Monday.

It said the balance of HISA deposits is expected to be approximately $391-million today, after settlements of Friday's transactions.

Home Capital said total Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) deposits, including Oaken and broker GICs, stood at $12.86-billion as at April 28.

"Home Capital also advises that the terms of the agreement will have a material impact on earnings, and will leave the company unable to meet previously announced financial targets," it said.

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Equitable Group Inc. (EQB-T) is increasing its dividend by 10 per cent and announced first-quarter net income of $43.4-million, up 55 per cent compared to $28-million in the same period a year earlier.

Diluted earnings per share were $2.54, compared to $1.71 in 2016.

Mortgages under management were $21.7-billion, compared to $17.7-billion a year ago, a 23-per-cent increase.

Originations rose 4 per cent to $1.6-billion.

The company said its quarterly dividend will increase 10 per cent to 23 cents and that the growth "is indicative of Equitable's commitment to consistently growing its dividend each year."

Without naming Home Capital, the company said "another Canadian financial institution has had repeated challenges," and said it operates its business "very differently."

"Nonetheless, the equity and funding markets have experienced some disruption over the past week," the company said. "We will continue to monitor our liquidity position carefully to ensure that we protect the money that Canadian investors and savers have trusted to us."

Equitable Group said its deposits "have been relatively stable and we did not notice any unusual trends until last Wednesday. As expected, after another financial institution publicly announced its business challenges last Wednesday, we began to experience an elevated but manageable decrease in our deposit balances."

Between Wednesday and Friday, the company said it had average daily net deposit outflows of $75-million, with the total over that period representing only 2.4 per cent of its total deposit base — with the most significant outflows occurring on Wednesday.

Its portfolio of liquid assets remained at approximately $1-billion.

"We are confident in the fundamentals of our business and our funding model, but owing to these recent events we have taken steps to reinforce our liquidity position," it said. "These additional steps are consistent with the conservative manner in which we manage our business and our low-risk appetite."

It also expects its mortgage application volumes to increase over the coming weeks.  "We plan to absorb the potential volume opportunities prudently, within our operational capacity and leveraging our available sources of liquidity, and as always will maintain our adherence to quality underwriting.  We have taken additional steps to tighten our underwriting standards to manage the flow and ensure that we approve only the highest quality of the applications."

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Journey Energy Inc. (JOY-T) says it has disposed of a non-core property in the Sylvan Lake, Alberta area for approximately $5-million.

The announcement came alongside the closing of a previously announced acquisition of assets in central Alberta for $35.6-million.

The company said it will fund the acquisition by issuing shares and through its credit facility.

"The acquisition is consistent with Journey's expansion strategy within its central Alberta core area by building on its extensive network of strategic infrastructure and further expanding its portfolio of low-risk multi-zone liquids focused horizontal drilling opportunities," the company stated in a release after markets closed on Friday.

It has also entered into additional hedges and is planning to shift approximately $5-million of capital expenditures from the second and third quarters to the fourth quarter.

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Kennady Diamonds Inc. (KDI-X) is raising $10-million in a non-brokered private placement, which includes issuing common shares and flow-through common shares.

The common are priced at $3.25 each and the flow-through common shares at $4.38 each.

The company's major shareholder, Dermot Desmond, will be subscribing for shares "under the placement on a pro-rata basis to maintain his proportionate ownership in the company," the company said.

Proceeds will be used in part to fund the company's exploration and evaluation program.

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Vista Gold Corp. (VGZ-N; VGZ-T) reported a net loss of $2.8-million or 3 cents per share for the second quarter ended March 31.

That compared to a net loss of $700,000 or a penny per share a year earlier.

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The North West Company Inc. (NWC-T) said on Friday that it's buying North Star Air Ltd., a Thunder Bay, Ont.-based cargo and passenger services airline for about $31-million.

North West also said it expects to make immediate follow-on investments of approximately $14-million for additional airplane and hub capacity.

Meantime, Exchange Income Corp. (EIF-T ), which provides freight service to North West throughout Manitoba and in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut through its Calm Air subsidiary,  said on Friday that it received notice from North West that it will be transitioning the freight service to its new subsidiary in 90 days.

"At that time we will cease our relationship as a supplier to North West," Exchange Income Corp. (EIC) said in a release.

It said Calm Air generated annual revenue of about $14-million from North West freight.

"Calm Air's carriage of North West freight was particularly competitively priced and as such, the impact to its bottom line after adjusting its capacity will be very small, under $1-million," EIC said. "Calm Air also provides freight service for the other multi-location retailer in the far north, Arctic Cooperatives, under a new long-term contract. Calm Air's work for Arctic Cooperatives will not be affected by this change."

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Paramount Resources Ltd. (POU-T) is selling its oil and gas properties in the Valhalla area of Alberta for about $150-million.

It said the assets encompass approximately 94 (74 net) sections of land and had estimated sales volumes of approximately 1,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the three-month period ended March 31, 2017.

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Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CPH-T) says it has completed an agreement to sell substantially all of the assets of Cipher Pharmaceuticals US LLC to a subsidiary of EPI Group, LLC for $13.6-million (U.S.).

This transaction does not include or impact Cipher's licensing business in the U.S.

"The sale of our Cipher US assets is consistent with our stated strategy to focus our resources on the continued expansion of our Canadian commercial operation, our highly profitable global licensing business and our pipeline," said Cipher CEO Robert Tessarolo in a release.

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Capital Power Corp. (CPX-T) reported net income attributable to shareholders of $50-million and earnings per share of 44 cents in the first quarter. That compared with a net loss of $6-million, or 11 cents per share in the comparable period of 2016.

It said "normalized" earnings, after adjusting for one-time items and fair value adjustments, were $33-million or 34 cents per share compared with $32-million or 33 cents per share in the first quarter of 2016.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 30 cents.

Net cash flows from operating activities were $99-million in the first quarter of 2017 compared with $131-million in the first quarter of 2016.

Adjusted funds from operations were $91-million in the first quarter of 2017, compared to $93-million in the first quarter of 2016.

"Capital Power's financial results for the first quarter of 2017 were in line with management's expectations," said CEO Brian Vaasjo. "First quarter results benefited from strong operating and financial performance from our contracted facilities in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia and the recognition of coal compensation from the Province of Alberta."

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Arizona Mining Inc. (AZ-T) is raising $110.2-million in a private placement with South32 Limited.

Arizona Mining says it has signed a binding private placement agreement for 45 million common shares at $2.45 each, representing approximately 15 per cent of the company on a non-diluted, post-subscription basis.

"The proceeds will be used to add drill rigs and fully test the Taylor Deeps, Trench Vein System and other high priority targets, as well as to advance the company's Taylor Deposit to the feasibility and permitting stage," the company said.

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Martinrea International Inc. (MRE-T) reported first-quarter sales of about $1-billion down 4 per cent or $38.9-million from a year earlier. Excluding tooling sales of $64-million, sales were $936-million in the most recent quarter.

The Toronto-based auto parts manufacturer reported net income of $43.6-million or 50 cents per share, up about 34 per cent from last year.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at $38.7-million or 45 cents, compared to $32.6-million or 38 cents a year earlier. Analysts were expecting earnings of 44 cents and sales of $990.7-million.

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