By Angela Harmantas
“Positive” earnings losses, more store closings and a new titleholder for Canada’s largest company – here are three things we’re watching today:
It should be an interesting couple of days in the Canadian oilfield services industry as the country’s largest drilling companies release their Q2 2015 results. On Thursday Precision Drilling reported a loss of $29.8 million in revenue and a loss of 10 cents per share, with total revenues of $334.5 million. That’s actually good news: analysts estimated a much higher loss and share dilution, so in this bizarre era of oilfield services, Precision has over performed. Look for other big Canadian players such as Ensign Energy Services Trinidad Drilling to release their Q2 earnings in the coming weeks.
I mentioned in an earlier blog this week that A&P filed for bankruptcy, and now there’s news that Loblaw is closing 52 locations across the country. It’s not a huge amount, given that the company on average closes about 10 to 15 per year, but the news also comes after the announcement that Loblaw has decided to shutter many of its Joe Fresh clothing stores from the United States. Despite the store closings, Loblaw’s Q2 2015 revenue was up $23 million compared to last year, at $10.54 billion.
After its $800 million acquisition of Amoun Pharmaceuticals last week, Valeant Pharmaceuticals is now Canada’s largest company by market value. On Thursday, Valeant’s stock surged 4.7%, closing the day with a share price of $341.02 and a valuation of over $116 billion and surpassing Royal Bank of Canada as the previous titleholder. Do you think they’ll keep their number one position for a while?
