Their Avista take over approval is being delayed. Doug Ford fired the board and a new one is coming in. He was disappointed to see this happen. The underlying assets in the business are pretty good. There is controversy to see what happens with the new management coming in. This one could present an opportunity for investors in the future.
It is a really well run company and a great Canadian success story. They reported a very strong quarter recently and the stock popped and then came off. People are worried about electrical vehicles and what will happen to gas stations. They have not done a big deal recently and they grow through acquisition. It has gone sideways for the last couple of years so the valuation has come down, so it has come onto his radar screen. It is representing better value now.
Over the long term it is a great company. The entire group of larger cap banks in the US are very well positioned. They are as well capitalized as they have ever been. They are benefiting from a strong US economy and housing market. Loan losses have been very modest as housing prices continue to rise. They trade at a pretty low PE multiple. He thinks they will continue to do well.
It is in the packaging space. They just acquired a packaging company. The stock has weakened recently because of input cost pressures and a facility in South Carolina that gave them some issues. They trade at a fairly low multiple compared to peers. He is doing some homework on this one because it could be a potential buying opportunity.
It has been a great turnaround story. They paid down a bunch of debt. It is a stable business. Everything is going well, but there has been some recent political turmoil and is creating an overhang on the company. It is hard to know how it is going to play out.