(Street Life is a regular feature that profiles what's playing in the stock market.)
In honour of the little guys, Street Life focuses on TSX Venture-listed companies this week.
Act I: Krill, anyone?
* The Player: Neptune Technologies and Bioressources Inc. (TSXV:NTB)
* Action: Down 42 per cent in a month (from $1.89 Sept. 5)
* Recent Price: $1.10
* 52-Week High/Low: $5.25/$1.03 With ingredients such as ylang-ylang, katira plant root, fish scales or proteins from bull semen (yes, bull semen), the cosmetics industry has often added the weird and wacky to its products in hopes of creating the newest trend.
A walk through your local grocery store will prove the food industry isn't far behind: Omega-3, DHA, probiotic and prebiotic have become household words.
So it can't come as a surprise to hear a Quebec-based nutraceutical company has partnered with a U.S. marine life sciences company and a nutrition company to commercialize ingredients from the sea for dietary supplements and food products.
Neptune Technologies and Bioressources Inc., based in Laval, has joined Marine Life Sciences of Salt Lake City to bring Neptune Krill Oil, Alpha-3 CMP (a concentrated marine algae phytoplankton) and other products to the shelf. Combining Neptune Krill Oil with Alpha-3 is the first and only total-plankton extract on the market, "offering significant health and athletic performance benefits," according to Neptune.
And what's not to believe? Nemo can swim fast, can't he?
Act II: Learning the lingo
* The Player: Lingo Media (TSXV:LM)
* Action: Up four per cent in a week (from $1.64 Sept. 29)
* Recent Price: $1.70
* 52-Week High/Low: $2.20/$0.85 English is reputedly one of the hardest languages to learn, but one of the TSX Venture's largest weekly gainers is determined to help.
Toronto-based Lingo Media Corp., a print and online education product and services company, has recently announced one of its products will be used by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The academy, a training centre for government, business and science leaders consisting of 31 research institutes and 45 research centres around China, launched a pilot program for Lingo's Speak2Me online English-language learning system back in June.
Now that the pilot program is complete, the academy's English Language Centre will open the system to its staff of more than 10,000, and will recommend Speak2Me to its satellite institutions around China.
Using speech recognition and animated avatars, Speak2Me (a free ad-based web portal) includes a social network infrastructure, and opportunities to converse with a virtual teacher.
In Canada, Lingo focuses on early childhood cognitive development, through its subsidiary A+ Child Development Ltd.
Act III: Coal war
* The Player: Waratah Coal Inc. (TSXV:WCI)
* Action: Up 38 per cent in a month (from $1.01 Sept. 5)
* Recent Price: $1.39
* 52-Week High/Low: $4.25/$0.40 A Canadian coal company is looking at Australia, and Australia is looking back.
Waratah Coal Inc. of Vancouver has applied to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) for the admission of Waratah to the ASX listings. If accepted, Waratah will become dual-listed on the ASX and the TSX Venture.
Waratah, which has seven coal projects in Australia (and more in application), has attracted the attention of Mineralogy Pty Ltd., a private company based in Brisbane. At the end of September, Mineralogy bought 115,400 shares of Waratah, bringing its ownership to just over 19 per cent of Waratah's outstanding shares. But it wants more: Earlier this month, Mineralogy announced its intention to acquire 50.1 per cent of Waratah for $1.41 per share.
Mineralogy says Waratah has an excellent opportunity in its Galilee Basin Coal Project, a large thermal coal mine in central Queensland, Australia, but the scope of that project is "beyond Waratah's experience and resources."
Waratah has recommended shareholders take no action until the company has reviewed the full details of a formal offer.
Act IV: Slippery oil
* The Player: Junex Inc. (TSXV:JNX)
* Action: Down 50 per cent in a month (from $2.84 Sept. 5)
* Recent Price: $1.42
* 52-Week High/Low: $8.22/$0.52 One old adage says there is strength in numbers, but another says three's a crowd. Which to believe?
Junex Inc., a junior oil and gas company based in Quebec City, has a strategy in line with the first adage: It does exploration in partnerships to help mitigate risk. But its shareholders may prefer the company to stand on its own; in spite of progress on wells and surveys, Junex's stock has tumbled consistently from highs over $8 last summer.
Junex, which holds exploration rights on more than six million acres of land in Quebec, recently completed a 3D seismic survey and a soil geochemistry survey on the Gaspé Peninsula, along with partners Petrolia (TSXV:PEA) and Gastem (TSXV:GMR). Results will determine the location of the next well and further drilling is expected to start before the end of the year.
Junex stock, however, has fallen 25 per cent in a week (from $1.90 Sept. 29), 50 per cent in a month (from $2.84 Sept. 5), and 83 per cent in four months, from an $8.22 high June 2.
NOTE: The above is not intended as investment advice to buy or sell any mentioned securities. Investors should do due diligence before investing. Quotes are based on results through Oct. 6, 2008.
(Nicole Strandlund can be reached at nicole@businessedge.ca)
