Sale helps Peller focus on wine

Article Excerpt

ANDREW PELLER LTD. $8.36 (Toronto symbol ADW.A; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 14.9 million; Market cap: $124.6 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; SI Rating: Above Average) will sell its Granville Island craft-brewing subsidiary to Molson Coors Canada for an undisclosed sum. The sale will close in early 2010, and will let Peller focus on its main business — its wineries in Ontario, Nova Scotia and B.C. Meanwhile, the company earned $1.8 million, or $0.12 a share, in its second quarter, which ended September 30, 2009. That’s down 15.5% from $2.1 million, or $0.14 a share, a year earlier. If you disregard non-cash gains and losses on the hedging contracts the company uses to cut its exposure to foreign-exchange and interest rates, earnings would have dropped 40.7%, to $1.6 million from $2.7 million. However, sales rose 1.8%, to $67 million from $65.8 million. The company recently launched new low-priced and premium wines. These should continue to spur sales. Andrew Peller is a buy…