A roundup of some of the North American equities making moves in both directions today
On the rise
Granite Oil Corp. (GXO-T) jumped almost 60 per cent after announcing early Monday it has entered into an arrangement agreement to be purchased by International Petroleum Corp. (IPCO-T).
IPC will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Granite for 95 cents per share. The transaction values Granite at approximately $79.7-million, including the assumption by IPC of Granite’s net debt and transaction costs.
Shares of IPC were up 2 per cent.
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (SNC-T) was up 2.7 per cent on a premarket announcement that it has been awarded an engineering services contract from Al Dhafra Petroleum, a joint venture company between ADNOC and the Korea National Oil Corporation and GS Energy.
Under the nine-month agreement, SNC-Lavalin will provide front-end engineering and design (FEED) services for the second phase of the Haliba field, located in Al Dhafra Petroleum’s concession area
“This contract win is aligned with SNC-Lavalin’s new strategy moving forward to greater growth and engineering services,” the company said.
On the decline
TMAC Resources Inc. (TMR-T) was down 5 per cent after it announced it has initiated a strategic process to “explore, review and evaluate a broad range of potential alternatives focused on maximizing shareholder value, including a potential sale or merger of the company, joint venture of the Hope Bay mine, introduction of a new significant strategic shareholder or various long-term financing alternatives.”
CEO Jason Neal said the move has the support of Resource Capital Funds and Newmont Corp. which representing 58.5 per cent of its shares outstanding.
People Corp. (PEO-X) dipped 0.6 per cent after it reported first-quarter results before the bell that fell just short of expectations on the Street.
The Winnipeg-based management consulting company revealed revenue of $44.3-million for its first quarter ended Nov. 30 compared to $36.3-million a year ago. Analysts were expecting revenue of $45.4-million.
Its net loss of $2.8-million or 4 cents per share compared to a loss of $1.5-million or 3 cents a year ago.
Acumen Capital analyst Jim Byrne said: "PEO continues to execute on its strategic plan by recently completing the Apri and Collage deals as well launching its new disability management solution. The company has initiated the first phase of integration related to the shared services functions relating to the recently acquired firms, including ACL Student Benefits and Collage.
“We believe PEO is well positioned for further organic and acquisitive growth in 2020 and remains one of our favorite names in our coverage universe.”
Paramount Resources Ltd. (POU-T) slipped 1.1 per cent after announcing it was notified by Keyera Corp. on Friday of an electrical failure within the Keyera Wapiti Gas Plant, leading to unplanned outage.
In a research note, AltaCorp Capital analyst Patrick O’Rourke said: “Overall, we view the event as neutral to a minor negative. The unplanned outage will have a minor impact on Q1/20 production estimates but, provided the event does not extend beyond two weeks and is transitory in nature, investors are likely to continue to focus on the bigger picture with a significant ramp in condensate rich production for the Company still scheduled to occur over the next 18 months.”
With files from Brenda Bouw, staff and wires
David Leeder