Investment Q&A

Q: I think you have mentioned in the past that for a retired conservative income investor, it would be appropriate to hold roughly 15-20% of foreign equities.

My first question is regarding 15-20% of what...the total portfolio of equities and fixed income or of only the equity portion?

My 2nd question is regarding each company and where they are domiciled. For example, BNS has 44% foreign income (based on their annual report). Do you count BNS as 0% foreign or 44%? WSP has 79% foreign. Do you count it as 0% or 79% foreign?

I have done it both ways. Using only where the stock is based (ex: BNS = 0% foreign), I get 14% foreign content. Breaking each company down by the income percent by geographic, I get 22%. Both of these #'s are a % of my total portfolio.

However, if you take the percentage of foreign content divided by only the equities (ignore fixed income), I get 35% foreign.

Back to my question...15-20% foreign content = based on what?

Thanks for your help.
Steve

Q: Thanks for the very quick response, and further, I was thinking that BIN has us revenues, does that also apply to wsp.

Thanks

Q: Hi Peter and team
You recently suggested WSP for an RRSP account. Since I have Stantec STN in a non-registered account. Stantec has been going down since Sep while WSP has been fairly stable. Do you recommend WSP over Stantec now?
Also would it be possible to have a "Heathcare" category added?
Thanks
Kathy

Q: What is the current payout ratio for WSP? What is the likelihood of a dividend increase over the next year?

Thanks in advance.

Q: We have a 1.5% position in WSP Global and 1.5% in Stantec (STN) and no holdings in the Transportation sector. Do you have a recommendation re adding to WSP versus buying Trimac (TMA) or Transforce (TFI), or other thoughts.

Q: I am seriously considering WSP from your Income Portfolio. Aside from the nice dividend, I like the more than five-fold revenue growth since 2008. But, I am concerned that EPS has actually decreased over the last 5 years. With this lack of accretion from previous aquisitions, how can I have confidence that the most recent acquisition will pay off? I am also concerned about the high P/E multiple of 23 times TTM earnings. The forward P/E of 16.8 is not too bad, if they can actually pull it off. I would appreciate your comments and your recommendation.

Thanks,
Hans

Q: Regarding your recent blog comment on infrastructure. Would you please recommend some Canadian/American stocks that would benefit most from an increase in spending for infrastructure products.

Thanks for your insights.

Peter

Q: I'm looking at buying into either WSP or Badger (BAD). Which do you believe is the better purchase as a growth stock or (assuming sector weightings are in line)do you think taking a position in both is a good idea.
Thanks
Jim

Q: I am a retired Dividend-Income investor and need to bump up my asset allocation in the Industrial-Tech sector.

I have narrowed it down to WSP and ET from your Income portfolio. ET looks good but seems fairly illiquid. WSP appears to have better metrics than ET (P/BV, P/Sales, upside based on Globefund summaries), but the beta is a little higher. Additionally, RBC has WSP as overvalued.

I like to give a stock time to run and have a healthy dividend. What are your thought on buying WSP vs ET at this time?

Thanks for your great service.
Steve

Q: Hi Peter, your thoughts on the latest results. The market seems pleased. Thanks!

Q: I need an infrastructure stock in my portfolio. Can you rate WSP, Aecon Stantec or SNC. Which one in your opinion has the best growth rate and are there others you would favour.Thanks.

Q: In a taxable account with significant gains for the year, I am sitting on a 13% loss with WSP and 10% loss with ET. I could buy RRSP's to negate some of the tax issues on my gains, or sell one or both of my stocks underwater - with intentions of buying them back after 30 days. I'd appreciate 5i's thoughts?

John

Q: The markets have been quite strong the last few days, yet WSP is not participating. Today, for example, the stock was down while the market was up nicely. My concern is, if the stock is weak in a strong market, what happens when the market comes back down. For some reason, my impression is that this company is not well liked by investors. Any idea why and what might turn this around?

Q: Hi 5i,

I was excited to see the new report on WSP but then got a bit worried when I saw the overall rating. A B- rating is only one above noninvestment grade from your previous comments. I was very surprised especially because in the past you seemed to have put STN and WSP comparable. Was it the recent acquisitions that is the main concern or was there something else that pulled it down?

Thanks!

Q: WSP Global Inc. (WSP) has closed the public offering of subscription receipts at a price of $35.85. Today they are trading at $35.45 (WSP.R) and the common shares are trading at $35.53 (WSP). Does this indicate the subscription receipts were not that well received? Do you see any problems with this issue?
Thank you.
Nadine

Q: Hi Team,

I have a few SJR.B shares that I have held for a number of years now and am taking of switching them for Telus for growth. Do you see any problems with that?
Also for a two to three year time frame who do you think offer the best outlook for growth/returns between STN and WSP?

Thanks and good luck for the remainder of the ride.

BK

Q: Is there any problem buying WSP Global in our US RSP portfolio? Will the stock's performance basically match the CAN version?

Q: Hi 5i Team: In the last couple of days, WSP Global (WSP) and Sylogist (SYZ) has announced bought deals.

WSP Global: The Acquisition and other related transaction costs are being financed through a combination of:
•$502 million bought deal public offering (the "Offering") of subscription receipts of the Corporation (the "Subscription Receipts") at a price of $35.85 per Subscription Receipt (the "Offer Price") and up to additional gross proceeds of $75 million pursuant to an Over-Allotment Option (as defined below);

Is this interpreted as: $502M / $35.85 = approx. 14M additional shares (not including over-allotment)?

•$400 million private placement (the "Concurrent Private Placement") of subscription receipts of the Corporation (the "Placement Subscription Receipts") at a price of $35.85 per Placement Subscription Receipt to two existing shareholders, (i) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ("CPPIB") and (ii) la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec ("La Caisse") and up to additional gross proceeds of $60 million pursuant to the Additional Subscription Option.

Is this interpreted as: $400M / $35.85 = approx. 11M additional shares (not including over-allotment) purchased by CPPIB and La Cassie?

WSP Shares Outstanding before announcement is: 61.6M

If the above is correct, future WSP Shares outstanding would be approximately: 61.6M + 14M + 11M = 86.6M, therefore a 40.5% increase in shares outstanding. Is this correct?


Sylogist Ltd. ("Sylogist" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SYZ) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Acumen Capital Finance Partners Limited ("Acumen"), pursuant to which Sylogist has agreed to issue, and Acumen has agreed to purchase on a "bought deal" basis, an aggregate of 1,820,000 common shares of the Company ("Common Shares") at a price of $11.00 per Common Share for total gross proceeds of $20,020,000 (the "Offering").

SYZ Shares Outstanding before announcement is: 22.4M

Therefore, the future SYZ Shares outstanding would be approximately: 22.4M + 1.82M = 24.2M, therefore an 8% increase in shares outstanding?

If my interpretation is incorrect for both companies, please advise. Thank you.

Q: Good afternoon, I was wondering your thoughts on the recently announced equity issue by WSP Global as well as the acquisition? Deal appears accretive and the last big deal they went through was well recieved by the market (earlier this spring).

Thanks in advance.

Kevin

Q: Hi - good luck on the ride Peter. Any thoughts on the WSP acquisition and financing. Seems like a very large deal for them.