Thursday, May 8, 2014

Torstar Even Cheaper After Sale of Harlequin

Eight months ago, I wrote about Torstar (TS.B) as a potential value investment. While the stock is up 30% since then, I believe the company is even cheaper now than it was then. The reason: the recently announced sale of the company's Harlequin business for $455 million.Read more...

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Saj,

Noticed that Torstar disappeared from your "value in action" page. Just wondering what your thoughts are on this position currently.

I exited out of Torstar after the sale of Harlequin. I just didn't know, so decided to walk away on that one.

Saj Karsan said...

Hi Viraj,

I'm not sure it was ever on that page. It was and still is on the Stock Ideas page, however.

I'm quite disappointed that none of the proceeds will be returned to shareholders.

Anonymous said...

Hi Saj,

Are you still following Torstar?

Is the current price more a reflection of the dividend cut or uncertainty over the Vertical Scope acquisition? A bit of both I assume.

The Vertical Scope business seems to do what Torstar does not and that is it attracts a large audience but is it something they can make money from through advertising etc. and steer them to other Torstar content?

With most of the cash now gone and the dividend reduced is there any value left?

I assume Vertical Scope needed a partner to grow it's business since it was not able to fund itself from internal cash flow and now that they have found that in Torstar what is left for shareholder's other than the $0.26 annual divy?

Thanks,

Frank

Saj Karsan said...

Hi Frank,

Sorry, I must have missed this comment. I stopped following Torstar for a while after selling in late 2014 when I did not like their plans. Now that some management changes have occurred and the stock has dropped a lot, I'm interested again.