Jean-Francois TardifAastra TechnologiesAAH.TOPAST TOP PICKSep 21, 2005

(A Top Pick May 27/13. Up 156.02%.) Acquired by Mitel (MNW-T) in February. Prior to this acquisition, there was a special dividend paid.

(Market Call Minute.) Basically a massive free cash flow generating company. Involved in handsets and central office stuff. Ranks 200 in his model. Good company and reasonable cash flow but not a strong buy at this point.

Large PBX (phone switch). Large distributor in Europe. He is seeing a stabilization in Europe, especially in the north. You don’t need the European business to come back to make money. They shrunk the float by 25% in the last couple of years. You will see them make an accretive acquisition or make a special dividend or be taken private.

By taking over shrinking companies they are able to generate incredible synergies. Growth in cash flow and cash on the balance sheet has just been tremendous. More than half their market cap is sitting in cash. Trading at net working capital, which is a very low-risk purchase price. Share count has been shrunk from 14 million to 11.5 million in the last 18 months. Expect they will deploy their cash into another acquisition, probably in Europe, which are very cheap right now. Also, expects there could be a special dividend. Yield of 4.35%.