Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Can you give me your thoughts on Callidus Capital? Thanks for your help

Article Excerpt

Callidus Capital, $11.16, symbol CBL on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 49.3 million; Market cap: $551.6 million; www.calliduscapital.ca), offers loans to mostly mid-sized Canadian and U.S. companies that are unable to get adequate financing from traditional lenders. Its clients include technology and resource firms. These borrowers typically have trouble getting financing because they’re seen as higher risk, or because they only require small loans. Callidus’s loans typically range from $5 million to $50 million. The company first sold shares to the public and began trading on the Toronto exchange at $14 on April 23, 2014. Callidus aims to keep growing quickly. However, it continues to buy back shares, and it just announced a quarterly dividend of $0.175 U.S., for a very high 6.0% annualized yield. The buybacks and high dividend are aimed at boosting the company’s sagging share price, but they add a lot of risk. That’s because, to fund its loan growth, Callidus will need to use a costly related-party facility (with interest rates…