Our roundup of Canadian small-caps of between $100-million and $2.5-billion in market capitalization making news and on the move today.
Restaurant conglomerate MTY Food Group Inc. (MTY-T) says that a whistleblower’s allegations that delayed its latest earnings report are baseless, but has not specified what those allegations were.
The fourth-quarter earnings report was initially scheduled for last week. When the company announced the delay, chief executive officer Eric Lefebvre said it would communicate more information when the results were released. The allegations were made by an "active employee" of the company.
"Although we cannot give details on the allegations, we can confirm that the allegations are baseless and the matters raised are all topics that MTY had evaluated and dealt with in the past, Gary O'Connor, chairman of the board of directors' audit committee, said in a statement on Monday. "We were able to confirm that our positions and judgments were reasonable and as such had no impact on our results and financial statements."
MTY owns a portfolio of more than 80 restaurant banners. Its brands include coffee shops Country Style, Timothy’s and Van Houtte; food court staples Manchu Wok, Tiki-Ming, Thai Express and Jugo Juice; frozen dessert shops Pinkberry, Tasti D Lite, Cold Stone Creamery and La Diperie; and burger restaurants Big Smoke Burger, South Street Burger and The Works. The company has 7,373 locations, most of which are franchises. More than half are in the U.S.; 38 per cent are in Canada and 7 per cent are in other markets.
MTY's stock has fallen more than 10 per cent since it announced the delay.
MTY reported revenue of $150-million for the three months ended Nov. 30, 2019, up 29 per cent compared to the same period in the prior year. That growth was driven mostly by acquisitions, such as the take-out and bake-at-home pizza chain Papa Murphy's. Same-store sales -- an important measure that strips out the impact of acquisitions by tracking sales in locations open more than a year -- were up 1.5 per cent, driven by growth in Canada and the U.S. that outpaced a 7.6-per-cent decline in international stores. The company's fourth-quarter net income attributable to shareholders was $20.7-million or 83 cents per share, compared to $13.2-million, or 53 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2018.
For the year ended Nov. 30, 2019, the company’s same-store sales were roughly flat. While revenue grew to $550.9-million, up from $412.3-million the prior year, net income fell to $77.7-million, compared to $95.8-million in 2018.
-Susan Krashinsky Robertson
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Endeavour Silver Corp. (EDR-T) reported fourth-quarter revenue of US$34.6-million up from US$33.8-million a year ago. Its net loss was US$17.9-million or 13 US cents per share versus a loss of US$3.7-million or 3 US cents a year earlier.
Analysts were expecting a loss of 3 US cents per share, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
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Drone Delivery Canada (FLT-X) announced late Friday that it will begin the commercialization of the Condor, which it says has a lifting capability of 180 kilograms of payload, a travel range of 200 kilometres and an operating speed of 120 kilometres per hour. “The multi-package payload compartment is designed to carry approximately 20 cubic feet of cargo,” the company stated.
The company said it’s “active in deploying commercial agreements previously announced and anticipates seeing operations start in Q1 with revenue-generating agreements.”
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Calibre Mining Corp. (CXB-T) announced it has struck an option earn-in agreement Rio Tinto Exploration that sees Rio Tinto earn up to a 75-per-cent interest in Calibre’s Borosi Projects in northeast Nicaragua.
"The Borosi projects host both gold-silver and copper-gold resources in two areas as well as multiple lesser-explored copper-gold skarns, low-sulphidation epithermal gold-silver vein systems and bulk tonnage copper-gold porphyry targets," the company stated.
The company and Rio Tinto have also entered into a strategic exploration alliance agreement that sees them work together "to identify and acquire exploration concessions in Nicaragua, with a focus on copper-gold porphyry, skarn and epithermal precious metal systems."
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Excellon Resources Inc. (EXN-T) announced it will buy Otis Gold Corp. (OOO-X) to create a “well-financed precious metals producer with established silver production in Mexico and an attractive gold development project in the United States.”
Excellon will acquire all outstanding shares of Otis at a share exchange ratio of 0.23 Excellon shares for each Otis share. Based on the exchange ratio, existing Excellon shareholders will own 74 per cent and former Otis shareholders will own 26 per cent of the combined company.
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Lucara Diamond Corp. (LUC-T) reported fourth-quarter revenue of US$56-million up from US$40.6-million a year ago. Net income was US$8.7-million or 2 US cents per share versus a loss of US$6.2-million or 2 US cents a year earlier.
Analysts were expecting revenue of US$40.3-million and earnings of a U.S. penny per share.