(Image via Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.)
As November draws to a close, what are investors thankful for? Even if the US Thanksgiving is something you don’t celebrate, major stock markets hovering around record highs recently could be some cause for celebration.
But this rising market tide isn’t lifting every ship. Many companies are seeing lower share prices on account of their sectors, tax loss season, or just a lacklustre performance.
As we head into the holiday season and prepare for Christmas once again, traders on the Bullboards are keeping their focus on value in the markets. Whether they are looking for a low entry point or discussing their long holds, there has been plenty to discuss lately for the investors and analysts that frequent Stockhouse.
We begin with a look at Canadian mining company
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSX: IVN, Forum), whose joint venture
Kamoa Copper has awarded China Nerin Engineering the contract for a copper smelter at Kamoa-Kakula.
The contract was signed earlier today by Mark Farren, CEO of Kamoa Copper, and Wu Runhua, General Manager of Nerin, at a virtual ceremony. Nerin is an international engineering company with more than 60 years of experience in smelter engineering and construction projects globally. The China-based company will engineer a direct-to-blister flash smelter at the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex that will incorporate leading-edge technology supplied by Metso Outotec of Finland.
The 500,000-tonne-per-year smelter will be the largest copper smelter in Africa and one of the world’s largest single-line smelters. It will be built adjacent to the Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrator plants and has been designed to be able to process the forecast concentrate levels from the Phase 1, 2, and 3 concentrators.
The next steps in the smelter’s development include completing basic engineering, which is expected to take approximately seven months.The smelter is expected to cost approximately $700 million (USD) over three years, which will be financed with cash flows from Kamoa-Kakula.
“Today’s signing of the smelter basic engineering contract with Nerin highlights our commitment to the people of the DRC to derive more economic benefits from Kamoa-Kakula by maximizing in-country beneficiation,” said Kamoa Copper CEO Mark Farren.
“After a great deal of due diligence,” he added, “the partners at Kamoa Copper collectively agree that the state-of-the-art, environmentally-friendly technology offered by the Metso Outotec direct-to-blister smelter best suits the unique low-iron, low-sulphur and ultra-high-grade concentrate produced at Kamoa-Kakula and aligns seamlessly with our goal of producing the world’s ‘greenest copper’.”
Junior miner
Harte Gold Corp. (TSX: HRT, Forum) announced this week that it had been advised that BNP Paribas assigned its rights and obligations in its capacity as lender under the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement made back in August 2020 and the Forbearance Agreement made in July 2021 to a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Silver Lake Resources Limited.
In the electric space,
Critical Elements Lithium Corp. (TSX-V: CRE, Forum) made headlines this week on the appointment of a new Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development,
Patrick Laperrière, CFA.
His portfolio specializes in natural resources as well as Canadian and American small-cap public shares at institutional investor
la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec from 1998 to 2003. He then held roles at major brokerage firms, such as
Canaccord,
RBC,
Industrial Alliance, and
Macquarie.
Canada’s largest software-as-a-service accelerator,
BlackBerry Limited (TSX: BB, Forum) announced a third phase of their
joint accelerator program, which aims to grow Canadian technology companies focused on connected vehicle solutions.
BlackBerry’s Intelligent Vehicle Data Platform BlackBerry IVY is a vehicle first, cloud connected software platform that presents vehicle data in a normalized format. BlackBerry IVY insights can easily be consumed by applications on or off the vehicle and are managed via a cloud console. The BlackBerry IVY development environment enables insights to be easily created from vehicle data, safely and securely.
Data intelligence company
Fobi AI Inc. (TSX-V: FOBI, Forum) has successfully completed the
Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type 1 audit. The audit was conducted by AARC-360, a nationally recognized CPA firm, registered with the PCAOB, specializing in Assurance, Advisory, Risk, and Compliance services. This is a significant achievement that positions Fobi with large corporations and government bodies that require SOC2 compliance. It’s also a significant 3rd party validation of Fobi’s internal and external processes.
CTO Tamer Shafiq commented,
“Obtaining the SOC 2 Type 1 certification reinforces Fobi’s ongoing commitment to the security, availability, and processing integrity of Fobi’s platform. Our clients can feel very confident that we are making every investment to establish and maintain the highest level of security and compliance.”
System Organization Control (SOC2) is a technical auditing process conducted by independent auditors who measure the availability, security, and integrity of an organization’s data processing systems, and determine whether effective safeguards and controls are in place. To comply with SOC2, Fobi demonstrated it had established rigorous policies and procedures in accordance with the Trust Services Criteria for security, availability and confidentiality. This independent validation of security controls is crucial for organizations operating in highly regulated industries such as financial services.
Fobi CEO Rob Anson added,
“The significance of this accomplishment cannot be understated as we have dedicated thousands of hours over the last 9 months in efforts to ensure a successful outcome.
Passing the SOC 2 audit gives us a distinct competitive edge as we can assure our current and various pilots and prospect customers in our pipeline that we have taken all steps necessary to keep their data safe, thereby protecting them from potential data breaches.
The SOC2 certification is a crucial component in securing government and enterprise contracts. The certification is also timely as we support Telus and other channel partners.
Until now we have been ineligible to participate in various RFP’s (Request For Proposals) and as a result, we have lost out on many large-scale projects due to the lack of possessing the SOC2 compliance and certification. The SOC2 certification will now enable us to pursue such organizations as the Federal and Provincial Governments, crown corporations, credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, and merchant payment and finance companies.
With fintech becoming an immediate opportunity as a result of the PassWallet acquisition, we believe we are now positioned well to realize and achieve great success in 2022 as a result of our SOC2 certification.”
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The executive team at
PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (TSX-V.PYR, Forum) felt compelled to issue a statement this week commenting on, what they call an
inordinate number of investor inquiries relating to recent trading activity.
From PYR:
- Everything material disclosed by the company in either its press releases or financial reports is true None of the contracts previously disclosed are at risk
- On track with current and prospective projects.
- The market price of the company’s common shares may not, from time to time, reflect its underlying value
Over the last three months, PYR stock has fallen roughly 12%, but is just over 23% higher year-to-date.
Sebastien St-Louis
has resigned from the board at
HEXO Corp. (TSX: HEXO, Forum) and has been replaced by President and CEO, Scott Cooper. St-Louis recently resigned from his post as CEO following activist shareholder Adam Arviv’s allegations of mismanagement and excessive shareholder dilution.
He was promptly replaced by Cooper, a veteran in the consumer-packaged goods space. The company’s share price is down approximately 50% over the past three months.
Dr. Michael Munzar, HEXO’s Chair of the Board, stated,
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sebastien for over eight years of service on HEXO’s Board of Directors. Through his years of dedication, he has helped build HEXO into a market leader in Canada.
It is my pleasure to welcome HEXO’s President and CEO, Scott Cooper, to the HEXO Board. Scott’s experience with Truss, Molson Coors and several other publicly-traded consumer packaged goods companies will be instrumental to HEXO’s success as we continue to drive growth and profitability through the commercialization of advanced cannabis products and to defend our position as a market leader in Canada.”
Quipt Home Medical Corp. (TSX-V: QIPT, Forum) has executed a non-binding LOI to acquire
a private respiratory care company servicing seven states throughout the US. The acquisition would be expected to increase Quipt’s annual revenues by approximately $14 million and $1 million in net income before synergies.
Quipt expects to generate additional revenue from organic growth, cross-selling, and corporate synergies. The target company specializes in providing high-quality, comprehensive respiratory care to patients in the long-term care setting including ventilator management, equipment, oxygen and providing supplies.
It also employs 165 remote respiratory therapists which would significantly bolster an already robust Quipt clinical team. The target represents a new business vertical for Quipt, which would leverage the company’s highly successful clinical respiratory care platform serving patients in the home, into the long-term care setting. Quipt anticipates its purchasing power to bring down the cost of respiratory equipment, and cross-selling opportunities to service additional patient needs with complementary equipment, and supplies. The target company would expand Quipt’s reach, offerings, and allow for the company to access more sales touchpoints, which it anticipates will benefit its current business.
Quipt expects to close the acquisition for $5 million plus a $500,000 earn out based on certain revenue targets, payable in cash, that would immediately be accretive to the company’s adjusted EBITDA and net income. Quipt would not assume any long-term debt of the target in connection with the acquisition.
Finally, medical company
StageZero Life Sciences Ltd. (TSX: SZLS, Forum) announced the availability of its
BORDERPASS COVID-19 RT-PCR saliva test. The BORDERPASS kit allows travellers to collect their COVID PCR saliva sample from the comfort of their home, office, or hotel room.
The BORDERPASS RT-PCR saliva test makes it easy and convenient for travellers to take their COVID PCR test without scrambling to find a PCR clinic when they are on the road. BORDERPASSPCR test results are accepted at Canadian and most international borders and offer one-way and two-way test kits for travellers departing from the US or Canada.
Saliva samples are self-collected by travellers under the video supervision of a healthcare professional using Ichor Blood Services’ video conferencing capabilities. Travellers then request FedEx to pick up their sample to deliver to the StageZero laboratory in provided packaging.
Test results are delivered via email within 24 hours of the lab receiving the sample. BORDERPASS test kits for individuals and businesses are available for purchase online and at stores across Canada. According to a recent announcement, Canada will continue to require that all non-Canadians and citizens who have been outside the country for over 72 hours present a negative COVID PCR test to enter the country. International travel is quickly heating up with the easing of travel restrictions between the US and Canada.
StageZero began offering COVID-19 tests in April 2020. Since then, the spread of the pandemic has been felt across the markets, but how has it impacted your portfolio in the final weeks of the Autumn 2021 season?
We end with a look at our Investor Pulse Poll survey results from last week. Though we did receive a variety of responses, it seems as if it is “full steam ahead” for most of you in terms of how you’re investing at this stage in the COVID pandemic.
This week, in a similar vein, we want to know which market sector has lost you the most money. Buying in a dip, or cautionary tale? Click the image below to head to our homepage, scroll down and cast your vote.
(Click image to vote.)
This coming weekend may be a relatively quieter one on the US market scene with markets taking a recess, but you can bet the news and value scores won’t stop flowing through the Stockhouse Bullboards. For previous editions of Buzz on the Bullboards:
click here.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Quipt Home Medical and PyroGenesis are clients of Stockhouse Publishing.