Updating Power Corp., Telus, and Canadian Pacific Railway

Article Excerpt

POWER CORP. $30.40 (Toronto symbol POW; Shares outstanding: 412.4 million; Market cap: $14.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Div. yield: 3.8%; www.powercorporation.com) is a diversified holding company. It holds its financial assets through 65.8%-owned Power Financial. These financial assets include 68.1% of Great- West Lifeco, one of Canada’s largest life insurers (see article on Great-West Lifeco in this issue), and 58.7% of IGM Financial, a leading Canadian mutual fund provider. Power Financial also owns 50% of holding company Parjointco, which holds 55.6% of Switzerland- listed Pargesa Holdings SA. Pargesa has 95% of its assets in five large European companies: Imerys (minerals), Total SA (oil), Pernod Ricard (wine and spirits), Suez Environnement (energy, water and waste services) and Lafarge (cement and building materials). Power Corp. also has investments in Asia. In the quarter ended March 31, 2014, Power Corp.’s earnings rose 7.6%, to $242 million, or $0.53 a share, from $225 million, or $0.49, a year earlier. The stock trades at 11.8 times this year’s…