GFL finished its first day of trading on the TSX at $22.40 a share, 11.6 per cent below the $25.33 initial offering price.
CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters
GFL Environmental Inc. shares fell more than 11 per cent on Tuesday afternoon as the waste-management company made its debut on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange amid punishing market conditions.
GFL finished its first day of trading on the TSX at $22.40 a share, 11.6 per cent below the $25.33 initial offering price. The company had already cut its IPO price below the $26.66 to $28.00 range it had anticipated last week.
The IPO was the third largest in the history of the TSX, according to the TMX Group, with Toronto-based GFL raising $2.78-billion – $1.9-billion of which came from the sale of subordinate shares, and the remainder which came from the sale of “tangible units,” a combination equity and debt instrument.
Story continues below advertisement
The company, however, hit the market at a moment of extreme uncertainty, with share prices buckling amid fears about the economic impact of COVID-19. The S&P 500 Index fell 2.8 per cent Tuesday despite a half-point interest-rate cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve, while the S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 0.78 per cent. Last week, markets around the world suffered their sharpest decline since the 2008 financial crisis.
The role of stabilizing the GFL’s sagging share price falls to a syndicate of investment banks that acted as joint book runners on the deal, which includes JPMorgan, BMO Capital Markets, Goldman Sachs, RBC Capital Markets and Scotiabank.
There was considerable interest on Bay Street in getting the deal across the finish line. Questions about pricing, however, have dogged the company’s attempts at going public since last summer, when it first announced plans for an IPO.
Throughout the early fall, GFL tried to build support for a public offering that priced its shares between US$20 to US$24. Institutional investors and investment bankers balked at the price, urging the company to reprice the deal to US$18 a share.
Instead of repricing the deal, GFL scrapped it. The company then raised $1.4-billion in December through a combination of debt and private equity, supported by its main backers, private equity firm BC Partners Securities LLC and the private capital arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
A renewed effort to go public gained momentum amid a run-up in public markets at the end of 2019 and through into February. Over that period of time, GFL’s main waste-management rivals Waste Connections Inc., Republic Services Inc. and Waste Management Inc. saw their share prices jump 15 per cent, on average. All three have largely given up those gains since mid-February when the markets turned.
“We think many investors may still find the deal pricey at the current offer range, however GFL’s updated deal structure likely has a better shot at closing,” Darryl McCoubrey, an analyst at Veritas Investment Research, wrote in note published on Friday.
Story continues below advertisement
BC Partners and Teachers remain the largest shareholders of GFL after the public offering, respectively owning 39.9 per cent and 15.6 per cent of the company’s outstanding shares.
GFL chairman and CEO Patrick Dovigi owns 3.7 per cent of the outstanding shares post-IPO, although he controls 27.8 per cent of the company’s voting rights through the ownership of multiple voting shares, each which carry 10 votes a share.
The company, North America’s fourth-largest diversified waste-management business, plans to use the proceeds from the public offering to pay down debt and potentially to make acquisitions.
TORONTO – Cineplex Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year ago as it was hit by a fine for deceptive marketing practices imposed by the Competition Tribunal.
The movie theatre company says it lost $24.7 million or 39 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $29.7 million or 40 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The results in the most recent quarter included a $39.2-million provision related to the Competition Tribunal decision, which Cineplex is appealing.
The Competition Bureau accused the company of misleading theatregoers by not immediately presenting them with the full price of a movie ticket when they purchased seats online, a view the company has rejected.
Revenue for the quarter totalled $395.6 million, down from $414.5 million in the same quarter last year, while theatre attendance totalled 13.3 million for the quarter compared with nearly 15.7 million a year earlier.
Box office revenue per patron in the quarter climbed to $13.19 compared with $12 in the same quarter last year, while concession revenue per patron amounted to $9.85, up from $8.44 a year ago.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
TORONTO – Restaurant Brands International Inc. reported net income of US$357 million for its third quarter, down from US$364 million in the same quarter last year.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its profit amounted to 79 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with 79 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue for the parent company of Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs, totalled US$2.29 billion, up from US$1.84 billion in the same quarter last year.
Consolidated comparable sales were up 0.3 per cent.
On an adjusted basis, Restaurant Brands says it earned 93 cents US per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 90 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents US per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Fortis Inc. reported a third-quarter profit of $420 million, up from $394 million in the same quarter last year.
The electric and gas utility says the profit amounted to 85 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 81 cents per share a year earlier.
Fortis says the increase was driven by rate base growth across its utilities, and strong earnings in Arizona largely reflecting new customer rates at Tucson Electric Power.
Revenue in the quarter totalled $2.77 billion, up from $2.72 billion in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Fortis says it earned 85 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 84 cents per share in the third quarter of 2023.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 82 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
