Updating Encana Corp., Canada Bread Co., and Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Article Excerpt

ENCANA CORP. $26 (www.encana.com) has completed its plan to sell shares of subsidiary PrairieSky Royalty Ltd. (Toronto symbol PSK) to the public. PrairieSky owns the oil and natural gas rights to 5.2 million acres in Alberta. It will not drill wells or explore for new reserves. Instead, it will collect royalties from other oil and gas producers. Encana received $1.67 billion and now owns 54% of PrairieSky. The proceeds are equal to 9% of Encana’s $19.2-billion market cap. In the future, Encana could hand out these shares to its own investors as a special dividend. Buy. CANADA BREAD CO. LTD. (www.canadabread.ca) recently accepted a friendly takeover offer from Mexican bakery Grupo Bimbo. As a result, shareholders received $72.00 a share, plus a dividend of $0.437 a share. MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $19 (www.mapleleaffoods.com) owned 90.0% of Canada Bread (see above), so it received $1.66 billion for its shares. That’s equal to 64% of Maple Leaf’s $2.6-billion market cap. The company will use…