Recent deals just what these two need

Article Excerpt

Transcontinental and Torstar (see next article) recently announced big acquisitions. Expanding in this way adds risk, as insiders at the companies being sold know a lot more about them than the buyers. However, these deals will leave these two companies less reliant on their flyer-printing and newspaper businesses, where revenue is shrinking. TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $20 (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 78.0 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tctranscontinental.com) recently purchased Brooklyn, New York-based Ultra Flex Packaging, a privately held maker of flexible plastic packages for candy, coffee and other foods. Transcontinental paid $80 million U.S. for Ultra Flex, which will add $72 million U.S. to its annual revenue and $12 million to its gross profits. This purchase looks like a good fit with U.S.-based Capri Packaging, which makes plastic bags and pouches for cheese and other dairy products. Transcontinental paid $146.1 million for Capri in May 2014. …