A small California bank. This had been a big success. Had paid $4.01 in 2011, and sold it in June at $11.65, and there was a dividend all the way through. If he held it now, he would continue to hold it at the current price.

Owns some of their preferred shares. Doesn’t think he would buy the common shares now. Has a huge insurance operation in many, many countries. He likes what they do. They made a major mistake during the recession, when they hedged on the basis of the market going to go down, but the market has done fantastic.

Has been suffering because of the increase in minimum wage in Ontario. Thinks the increase is a great idea. If you take people who are earning less than $12 an hour, and all of a sudden up their wages by $3 an hour, they are going to spend the money for the most part because they need to. That in itself will create jobs.

Does a lot of training in nuclear, chemical and oil/gas industries. He has had a double since he bought it, and thinks it can go up at least another 50%, if not double again. A beautiful company, in terms of financial ratios. They have no debt. They make money and have cut costs. Just did a small takeover that they expect to be accretive right away. He loves buying companies that have low debt or no debt.

Bought this last April at over $3, and it has come down since then. They have a few problems such as dealing with some lawsuits. One is obviously a rogue trader who was putting people into investments that were too risky for them. This is possibly going to court, and he doesn’t know how that is going to work out. GMP Capital has 2 sides. One is the energy side where they raise money for energy and mining companies, which has not been a great side. The other side is Richardson Securities, wealth management, which has been absolutely wonderful for them. Thought they would be taken over. He is quite content holding this, and can see how it can do a triple from this level. They had a lot of competition, but a lot of it has either folded or merged, so there is less competition.

It has done so well that he is not interested in it. He prefers companies that are out of favour. This has franchises, including Mr. Lube, Sutton Realty and Air Miles. Pays a great dividend, but has no idea how sustainable that is. Had a bit of a checkered past, so he is not as interested. If looking for a dividend player, and if this company can sustain their dividend, it could do very, very well going forward.

He’s lost a fair bit of money on this, but is happy to hold. The major problem they are facing is with the SEC. They thought they had settled and it appeared everything was good, but now the SEC has come back after them. That is ultimately going to cost them time and money. It is the kind of a distraction that a company really doesn’t need. Expects there will be some tax loss selling towards the end of the year, so you may be able to get in at a better price.