Our roundup of Canadian small-caps of between $100-million and $2.5-billion in market capitalization making news and on the move today.
Aphria Inc. (APHA-T; APHA-N) reported net revenue of $120.6-million for the second quarter ended November 30, up from $21.7-million a year ago. Its net loss of $7.9-million or 3 cents per share, compared to net income of $54.8 million or 22 cents a year ago.
Analysts were expecting revenue of $128.6-million and a loss of 3 cents per share.
Aphria also slashed its 2020 sales and earnings targets on Tuesday. The company now projects sales of between $575-million and $625-million for fiscal 2020, down from an estimate of between $650-million and $700-million. Analysts were forecasting 2020 sales of $653.4-million.
It also expects 2020 adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to come in between $35-million to $42-million, well below the previous estimate of $88-million to $95-million.
The company said the lower targets reflect “certain market dynamics,” including slower than expected retail store openings in Ontario, a temporary ban on vaping products in Alberta, and slowing sales in Germany.
The company also announced that Irwin Simon will officially remove "interim" from his title and become CEO as well as continue as chairman.
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Endeavour Mining Corp. (EDV-T) abandoned its 1.47 billion pound ($1.9 billion) pursuit of Centamin on Tuesday, saying it did not receive sufficient information on the Egypt-based miner’s assets during an assessment.
“The quality of information received during the accelerated due diligence process has been insufficient to allow us to be confident that proceeding with a firm offer would have been in the best interests of Endeavour shareholders,” Endeavour CEO Sebastien de Montessus said in a statement.
Centamin rebuffed the all-stock takeover proposal from Endeavour in December, saying it did not offer enough value to Centamin shareholders.
Since then, the U.K’s takeover panel agreed to extend a deadline for Endeavour to make a firm offer, to allow more time for the two sides to engage and share information.
Centamin’s London-listed shares fell more than 4 per cent after the announcement but are up about 10 per cent since Endeavour’s takeover proposal on Dec. 3. Endeavour’s shares are down by about 12 per cent in Toronto.
-Reuters
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Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC-T) has announced a new president to lead its namesake department store business in Canada.
Iain Nairn, most recently chief executive of Swedish stationery and gift retailer Kikki.K, will oversee the 89 Hudson’s Bay stores at a time when the department store business faces serious challenges that CEO Helena Foulkes has said are “largely self-inflicted.”
Last month, the company reported a $226-million loss in its third quarter. The Bay stores are in the midst of a revamp, stripping 600 under-performing brands out of its merchandise, while adding 75 new ones. It has also been working to balance cost-cutting with improving customer service, making it easier for customers to navigate the stores and find staff to help them. While digital sales have been growing, overall sales have been in decline.
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-Susan Krashinsky Robertson
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Magellan Aerospace Corp. (MAL-T) announced an agreement to supply Collins Aerospace Systems - Landing Gear with nose-landing gear assemblies for the B737 aircraft. The assemblies, which the company said include complex machined titanium components, are valued at approximately $52-million and will be delivered through 2024 from Magellan’s facility in Kitchener, Ont.
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Radient Technologies Inc. (RTI-X) announced a letter of intent for a sale-leaseback transaction with purchaser 2238501 Alberta Ltd, which would purchase the company’s Edmonton I, II, and III land and building facilities for $20-million.
"The transaction has an implicit interest rate of 13 per cent annually ($2.6-million) against the company’s entire Edmonton-based group of real estate assets, comprising approximately 112,500 square feet of manufacturing space," it stated.
The company said it will use the net proceeds for general working capital purposes while completing the buildout of its 89,000 square foot Edmonton III manufacturing facility, and to repay existing long-term debt.
CEO Denis Taschuk said the "cash injection will be non-dilutive, and allows us to obtain additional working capital to finance the remainder of the buildout of our Edmonton III facility as we continue to scale up our operating capacity considerably.”
Radient also said it expects to "meet or exceed" its previously disclosed revenue target of at least $10-million for its third quarter fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31.
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Ballard Power Systems (BLDP-Q; BLDP-T) announced that it has signed equipment sales agreements (ESAs) for an initial 500 FCgen®-1020ACS fuel cell stacks to adKor GmbH and SFC Energy AG to be integrated into adKor’s Jupiter backup power systems for deployment at radio tower sites in Germany through the end of 2021.
"Contracts have been awarded to adKor for the supply of fuel cell backup power systems to support an initial tranche of 500 radio tower sites in Germany – with the potential for a total of up to 1,500 radio tower sites – and adKor has sub-contracted a portion of the work to SFC Energy," the company stated. "As a result, adKor and SFC Energy have signed development partnership and licensing agreements, will share production activities for the supply of Jupiter systems and are developing product line extensions."
Oben Uluc, Ballard Sales Director for EMEA said the German government’s decision to deploy fuel cell systems for backup power at radio tower sites “is a result of the technology’s proven reliability and effectiveness in the field over the past number of years.”