(Business Edge columnist Gyle Konotopetz regularly profiles some of Canada’s most accomplished investment pros.)

FEATURED PRO: Fred Pynn is vice-president of Calgary-based Bissett Investment Management (www.franklintempleton.com/bissett).

Pynn manages the Bissett Canadian Equity Fund, which has a one-year return of 17.7 per cent (through Sept. 30). Management Expense Ratio (MER): 2.6 per cent.

Pynn’s Perspective: “There are a lot of positives right now for the Canadian stock market. The economy is still doing pretty well in Canada, the rebound in commodity prices is favourable, we don’t think inflation will be a big problem and we think the Bank of Canada has raised interest rates for the last time in a while. We’re also entering a very strong seasonal period for the market.

Fred Pynn

“I think the Canadian dollar is going to continue going up, relative to the U.S. dollar. The Americans have lots of issues and problems (economically) and a lot of the things that are impacting Canada positively, such as high commodity prices and energy prices in particular, are bad for the U.S. If you believe the Canadian dollar will continue to rise, you will want to own Canadian businesses that do most of their business in Canada and import goods in U.S. dollars, as do many retailers.”

First Star

* Alliance Atlantis Communications (TSX:AAC.B)

* Recent Price: $27.99.

* 52-Week Range: $18.23-$29.30.

* Snapshot: Alliance finances, produces and distributes television programs and theatrical movies and also licenses TV broadcast rights for the global market.

* CEO: Michael MacMillan.

* Head Office: Toronto.

* Vital Stats: Revenue (last 12 mos), $640.2 million; 5-Yr Revenue Growth, 1.9 per cent; Earnings/Loss (last 12 mos), $153.9 million Loss; Market Cap, $1.21 billion; Shares Outstanding, 43.09 million.

* Pynn’s View: “This company owns several specialty TV channels that are profitable and growing businesses. They’ve gotten involved in the production of Crime Scene Investigations programs, which is generating a lot of cash flow. They’ve shut down their film distribution business as part of a reorganization, so now they have three business segments that are all profitable.

“They have some high-yield debt that will be refinanced at the end of this year at about half the interest rate and the estimate is that the refinancing will be worth about 40 cents a share per year in earnings.”

* Pynn’s Risk Rating: High.

* Web Watch: www.allianceatlantis.com Second Star

* Cott Beverages (TSX:BCB)

* Recent Price: $31.70.

* 52-Week Range: $28.36-$45.89.

* Snapshot: Cott is a producer and distributor of private label and branded soft drinks and other non-alcoholic beverages.

* CEO: John Sheppard.

* Head Office: Toronto.

* Vital Stats: Current Price/Earnings Ratio, 22.5; Revenue (last 12 mos), $2.1 billion US; 5-Yr Revenue Growth, 7.6 per cent; Earnings (last 12 mos), $108.7 million US; 5-Yr Revenue Growth, 52.3 per cent; Market Cap, $2.25 billion; Shares Outstanding, 71.12 million.

* Pynn’s View: “This company recently reported a poor quarter (a 14-per-cent drop from the year-ago period) but what’s interesting is that they still have excellent sales growth. The reason they had a poor quarter is that they’ve been growing so quickly, they’ve experienced inefficiency in production and distribution of their end products.

“The stock got crushed when they missed (street estimates) on their earnings, but we can still see a lot of growth potential here. They’re building a new facility in Dallas/Fort Worth, they’re continuing to look for acquisitions of bottlers to add to their network and they recently signed up Target as another big client. They already have Wal-Mart as a client and they’re the largest bottler of private-label soft drinks in North America and the private-label share of the market continues to increase, whereas the branded share of the market, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and 7-Up, continues to decline. We’ve been adding to our position as a result of the price decline.”

* Pynn’s Risk Rating: High.

* Web Watch: www.cott.com

Third Star

* Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO)

* Recent Price: $56.55.

* 52-Week Range: $49.21-$59.65.

* Snapshot: BMO is one of Canada’s major banks, providing credit and non-credit services to individuals and commercial clients and also provides wealth management services.

* CEO: Tony Comper.

* Head Office: Montreal.

* Vital Stats: Current Price/Earnings Ratio, 13.0; Revenue (last 12 mos), $13.3 billion; 5-Yr Revenue Growth, -6.3 per cent; Earnings (last 12 mos), $2.3 billion; 5-Yr Earnings Growth, 8.8 per cent; Market Cap, $28.33 billion; Shares Outstanding, 501.02 million; Dividend Yield, 3.1 per cent.

* Pynn’s View: “Generally speaking, I think Canadian financial services is a very good place to invest right now and we like the Bank of Montreal despite their exposure to the U.S. That (U.S. business) can be a negative (based on the potential of a falling U.S. dollar), but you have to consider that something like 70 to 80 per cent of their income is still coming from Canada. This bank is extremely focused.

“I also continue to like the Bank of Nova Scotia (a past pick) because they don’t have a big investment in the U.S.”

* Pynn’s Risk Rating: Low.

* Web Watch: www.bmo.com Pynn’s Edge Record (past 12 mos): +0.6 per cent. Best Pick: Alimentation Couche-Tard (TSX:ATD.B) +23.5 per cent.

Worst Pick: Axcan Pharma (TSX:AXP) -30.1 per cent.

Disclosure: Pynn may own shares in the Bissett Canadian Equity Fund in which the featured stocks are held.