Sandy McIntyre
Sun Gro Horticultural Inc
GRO-T(dead)
HOLD
Aug 12, 2005
Their payout ratio is very tight. Cash flowing around $0.90 a unit. Dominant in the growing medium area and as climate becomes more extreme you are looking for more controlled growing medium for quality of product. Would like to see their balance sheet a bit better and can see that correcting over time.
(A Top Pick July 28/05. Down 17%.) A quasi-monopoly. It takes the bogs and uses the peat moss to create mixes for home growers. It had about 45% gross margins and pricing power. Because it sells mostly in the US, the stronger Canadian dollar as well as transportation costs hurt them. Sold his holdings.
Peat moss. Heavily dependent on weather. Have been hurt by transportation issues in the past. They do very well keeping their costs under control. High payout ratio and high input costs.
Get peat moss out of Canada and ship to the US.
Double whammy is
1. Foreign exchange exposure.
2. Peat moss is used for landscaping and US housing is going down.
Thinks is should be $4 -$4.5 per unit.
Undergoing some strategic reviews because of a creeping competitor Premier Tech (?) and wouldn’t be surprised if an acquisition didn’t occur in the next month or 2.