Fort Hills sale hits a snag

Article Excerpt

TECK RESOURCES LTD. $54 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol TECK.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 512.3 million; Market cap: $27.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.teck.com) explores for and develops various types of minerals, including copper, gold, zinc and metallurgical coal (used for making steel). Teck recently agreed to sell its 21.3% stake in the Fort Hills oil sands project of northern Alberta to Suncor Energy Inc. (Toronto symbol SU) for $1 billion. That will lift Suncor’s total interest in the Northern Alberta development to 75.4%. France’s TotalEnergies, which holds the remaining 24.6% stake in Fort Hills, is now trying to legally block the sale. That’s probably because it plans to spin off its Canadian oil sands assets, including Fort Hills, as a separate company and Suncor’s greater stake could diminish the appeal of that new company. However, it’s likely that the sale to Suncor will proceed as planned during the first quarter of 2023. Teck…