Funding Torstar growth

Article Excerpt

TORSTAR CORP. $13 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 79.1 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 2.8%; SI Rating: Above Average) will get $345 million for its 20% of CTVglobemedia, which BCE is acquiring. That’s roughly a third of Torstar’s market cap. Torstar may use some of this cash to reduce its long-term debt of $519.2 million. That would cut its interest costs, and free up cash for expanded Internet growth. Torstar recently paid an undisclosed sum for the 86% of travelalerts.ca that it did not already own. This site offers travel information and links to airfares. Torstar has also just launched moneyville.ca, a new site devoted to personal finance. (I’ll be writing a column for moneyville.ca, which will appear on Thursdays.) Other Torstar sites are expanding nicely. They include thestar.com (news), healthzone.ca (health information), and wheels.ca (automotive information). Revenue from Torstar’s Internet operations jumped 41.4% in the second quarter of 2010. The web now generates 5.8%…