You’d never know it by watching the eastern-biased Report On Business-TV, but some of the brightest investment minds reside in Alberta.
It seems that ROB-TV has yet to discover this fact.
By overlooking the talent in the west, the Toronto-based Canadian business network is missing the boat and doing a disservice to its viewers by featuring only eastern-based money managers as guest experts on its daily hour-long Market Call program, which airs twice on weekdays (11 a.m. and 8 p.m. MST).
ROB does occasionally interview Calgary-based pros such as Josef Schachter and a posse of oil-and-gas analysts on other programs, but often these guests wind up looking like they’re starring on the comedy channel, toying with their earpieces or simply talking to themselves.
Just the past week, Peters & Co. analyst Brian Prokop fumbled with a cranky earpiece throughout an interview. Recently, Bissett & Associate’s Juliette John was rudely muted in mid-interview when a mike went dead and the money manager never did get to finish making her point.
ROB would be well advised to get its technical act together so they can hear what some of the Western gurus are saying.
Calgary-based investment pros routinely scoop eastern counterparts on Alberta-based companies before they reach the radar screen on Bay Street.
Viewers of Market Call know there aren’t too many secrets on Bay Street, where a pack mentality results in many of the same overpriced stocks continually getting promoted to death.
Curiously, one of the most popular stock picks of ROB’s guest experts is BCE, which happens to own ROB.
Of the 30 investment pros whose top picks were featured in Business Edge’s Pro’s Three Stars feature in 2001, a year in which the pretenders in the game of stock picking wound up red-faced, the 13 Calgary-based analysts and money managers literally took the easterners to the cleaners.
This is not to say there aren’t astute investment pros in the east, but Bay Street ought to pay heed to some of the wily westerners, particularly those in Calgary who managed to turn the tables in an ugly bear market.
Clearly, the top four Edge stock pickers in 2001 were Calgary-based pros – Randy Ollenberger, Merrill Lynch’s energy director; Fred Pynn, vice-president of Bissett & Associates; Patrick Slater, vice-president of QVGD Investors; and Josef Schachter, president of Schachter Asset Management.
A year ago, Ollenberger picked Suncor Energy (SU-TSE), Husky Energy (HSE-TSE) and Gulf Canada as his three stars.
Based on Jan. 2 closing prices, his picks have shown a 37-per-cent profit. Gulf was taken over at a 60-per-cent premium to its price of a year ago, Suncor is up 37 per cent and Husky is up 12 per cent.
Pynn’s performance is the most impressive, as all six of his picks were up 10 per cent or more and 32 per cent overall in a year in which the TSE 300 lost 19 per cent.
In picking stocks for the Edge in April and October, Pynn nailed two home runs with 49-per-cent gains on the eastern grocer Metro (MRU.A) and CAE (CAE-TSE), the flight-training company whose stock was hammered after Sept. 11 (Pynn recommended it in October at $7.80).
Pynn’s other winners were auto-parts maker Magna International (MG.A-TSE), up 34 per cent; cheese maker Saputo (SAP-TSE), up 33 per cent; Suncor, up 17 per cent; and CN Rail (CNR-TSE), up 10 per cent. Slater also turned in remarkable results by picking nine little-known companies with sound balance sheets and rock-solid management, and emerging with seven winners.
Slater claimed to be swinging for singles, but hit one out of the park by picking Edmonton-based engineering firm Stantec (STN-TSE) in March at $15.05. The stock gained 72 per cent!
Slater’s picks in mid-December gained 14 per cent overall in less than a month – with MFP Financial (MFP-TSE), up 17 per cent; Home Capital Group (HCG.B-TSE), up 15 per cent and Danier Leather (DL-TSE), up 10 per cent.
His other winners were Cascades (CAS-TSE), up 32 per cent; Silent Witness (SWE-TSE), up 25 per cent; and Parkland Industries (PKI-TSE), up 17 per cent.
His other picks were Coreco (CRC-TSE), which is even, and Russel Metals (RUS-TSE), down 20 per cent.
Schachter’s six choices are up 12 per cent with Nortel Networks (NT-TSE) up 56 per cent from $7.90, Lehman Brothers (LEH-NYSE) up 37 per cent and Gulfstream up 45 per cent, based on its takeover price.
Toronto-based analyst Doug Cooper of Taurus Capital boasted the sweetest swing in Edge picks with an 81-per-cent grand slam off Calgary-based BW Technologies (BWT-TSE), catching the gas-detection equipment manufacturer at $8.75 in March.
Among the other Calgary experts who wound up in the green was Canaccord Capital oil-and-gas analyst Gord Currie, whose picks are featured in this week’s Pro’s Three Stars on Page 18.
Toronto money manager Mal Spooner of Mavrix Fund Management was a runaway winner for picking mediocre stocks. With his six picks, Spooner was down 51 per cent.
Among his dogs were Calgary-based Electronics Manufacturing Group (EMG-TSE), down 90 per cent; Canada 3000 (CCC-TSE), down 87 per cent when halted; and GT Telecom (GTG.B), down 80 per cent.
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HOT ALBERTA STOCK: Axia Netmedia
AXX-TSE $1.99
Up 53 cents (+36.3%) on 879,400 shares (for week ending Jan. 4).
Calgary-based Axia may have been late to the tech-stock bash but, once arriving, it has been the life of the party. After the latest surge on massive volume, Axia boasts a double in the past month, but the stock is still a far cry from its year high of $4.75. Axia is one of the major players in Alberta’s SuperNet project, the fibre-optic super highway to the Internet. CEO Art Price said in September that Axia expects substantial revenue growth, positive cash flow and profitability in fiscal 2002.
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COLD ALBERTA STOCK: Foremost Industries
FMO.UN-TSE $3.40
Down 60 cents (-15%) on 13,700 shares (for week ending Jan. 4).
Foremost dipped after enjoying a sharp spike upwards late in 2001. However, the stock still looks like a winner, having come a long way from a low $1.38 last year. The Calgary-based company manufactures heavy all-terrain vehicles, drilling rigs and mining tools.
