Cartier saga continues in Talvest Town Hall

(October 24, 2003) The rumours continue to fly in the Talvest Town Hall concerning the purchase of Cartier Financial Partners.

While there is no hard news on who may be buying Cartier, the consensus in the forum seems to be Power Financial. Now speculation has turned to setting a price on Cartier.

“Cartier [Capital L.P.] has to realize a certain value to pay off [Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec]. I don’t know specifics, but I have heard they need more than $1 per share for the shareholders of the LP to make some profit on the venture,” read a posting by an advisor identified only as “Highnetworth” on Monday, October 20. “That fact plus the options all above 70 cents, and the bid asking range being 66 cents to 70 cents, points to at least $1.”

“This thing has been put on the block since June,” said “Reality Check For Highnetworth.” “The investment bankers have been working on a deal since then… This will be a classic case of buy on rumour, sell on news. This stock will sell for less than it is trading.”

“I hear that a press release is being prepared and that the sale price will be $165 million — $80 million for the debt and 85 million for the equity holders,” said ‘A different opinion’ on Thursday, October 23. “Has anyone heard?”

Debate raged over the price per share that Cartier could fetch, with “Reality check” adamant that the company would go so 50 cents, while “Highnetworth” claimed otherwise.

“The Caisse needs a certain dollar value to break even, which is said to be $1.20 per share,” they said.

At 12:30 P.M. today, a press release was issued, stating that Cartier Capital L.P. had paid 68.4 cents per share to acquire 11,314 common shares of Cartier Partners Financial. This purchase gives Cartier Capital a 69% stake in Cartier Partners Financial.

“Looks like they are dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s,” says “CCB” after the release. “Maybe we’ll have some news next week?”

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Filed by Steven Lamb, Advisor.ca, slamb@advisor.ca

(10/24/03)

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