Investment Q&A

Q: In your answer to Colin's questions about ECN on Aug 12th, your answer included this statement - "The sold division was the fastest growing, by far".

I had a look at the quarterly financials just released on Sedar, and in the notes to the financials there is the segmented information, and in there it shows the current Q2 and last year's Q2. The revenue for the sold division was up by 42.9% year over year, and for the 2 remaining divisions, Triad had revenue growth of 72.5% and KG had 30.6% growth. It looks to me like there is excellent growth in the 2 remaining divisions. Am I missing something?

It seems to me there is a very substantial, rapidly growing business remaining after the sale of the Home Improvement Loans division, and in the BNN interview with Steve Hudson he was very optimistic about the future growth of the 2 remaining divisions.

Q: I like the recent q report. The stock still seems underpriced compared to similar US companies which may be a good comparable as almost all of its growth is coming from the US business. It looks like the street is taking more interest. Your thoughts please.

Q: I wanted to ask about one more point on the ECN division sale. Assuming the deal close they are getting 2B US$. Only 1.5B of that is being used to pay out 7.50 CAD per share. This means there is 500M US (about $2.50 CAD per share) being added to the company. So at current price of 10.65 the other half of the company is being valued at 65 cents. Is this correct?

Q: thoughts on the quarter please? Thx

Q: Hi 5i team,
Re ECN, which is in the ‘growth portfolio’, is the special dividend of $7.50 per share only payable to shareholders which are on the book as of Aug 10, 2021? Shares purchased after Aug 10 would not be entitled to this special dividend? Thanks.

Q: What is the reasonable counter-argument to using my 10% cash holding to buy ECN for the special dividend? It's a good company so I'm fine holding after to ride out any market volatility, and it doesn't seem to have any especially severe company risk compared to peers...

Q: Your comments on the latest earning report of Lifeworks would be appreciated.Is it a sell on news situation since it's down more than $2.00.
Thanks
Dave

Q: i do not ask many questions, i am a seasoned investor but ecn has me stumped.
hudson did an amazing deal-will close within 4.5 months from now and payout 7.50 a share to shareholders-the stock should be at 15-16, i saw the interview with hudson on bnn -he is a shrewd as they come-he said they will only do tuck in acquisitions for now because prices are to high.the market is valuing ecn like after deal closes the stock is worth 2.50 -is this the greatest opportunity to buy this stock or am i just wrong. dave

Q: Your thoughts on these e-commerce companies. Could these be another meme stocks or there is real value? Thank you!

Q: Hi 5i,

I own the Preferred shares of ECN. They have just sold a major part of the business and are going to pay a special $7.50 dividend to the common shareholders. The way I see it, are they not taking away a lot of the security of the preferred shareholders by paying such a large common share dividend? Do the preferred shareholders have a voice in this matter? Can the company just dividend out everything leaving the preferred shareholders holding a worthless piece of paper?

Your thoughts on this are appreciated.

Q: A follow up question to your earlier response. If the company is paying such a high special dividend does that mean that Mr Hudson and the board did see better uses for the proceeds? After the sale the company will be much smaller, slower growing (from what I can tell but I may be wrong) and without the cash available to grow meaningfully by acquisition. Do you think this is the start of the end game for ECN where the rest of the company eventually gets sold?

Q: I am sure you are tired of ECN questions by now, but I have to ask;)

Do you have a good way to evaluate what the leftover divisions of ECN will be worth on a per share basis?

I assume one can't simply equate the amount of revenue left over.

I am not skilled enough to figure that out, but I am sure someone is.

Is there a bit of a disconnect here or are the left over segments only worth ~$3.5 a share.

As always, thanks for the great service.

Q: If one wanted to add some exposure to Bitcoin or crypto currency in a portfolio what would your suggestions be?

Q: I'm thinking that I want to remain invested in ECN because I like how they think and their results. I'm thinking of buying more shares in the coming days which ended the day barely up from the day before and I expect it will not fall the full $7.50 when it goes ex-dividend which would give me the post-dividend shares at a cheaper price than buying later. I would do this in my RIF and TFSA so there is no resulting tax. What do you think of this idea?

Q: Could you enlighten me about just why ECN is selling off a big chunk of their business and then paying a special dividend to shareholders? From what I can see and what you've said so far it will go from a $2.5 billion dollar company to a half billion dollar company. It will pay us $7.50 a share in a special dividend, but then the value of the shares we hold will likely drop by the same amount, if not more, since larger investors will probably abandon the newly shrunk company. So where is the benefit for shareholders in this action?

Q: Can you please comment on a special dividend that would be paid $7.50. Stock is only up .22 cents right now. The stock should go up by at least $7.50. Do you think the stock would move up by at least $7 to 7.50 once the date is announced? Do you consider buying the stock to collect the special dividends?

Am I missing something here? Do you expect the deal would not be completed?

Thanks for the great service

Q: Regarding Mike's question,that $7.50 dividend can't be right,looks more like $0.75 the way the stock is reacting!!

Q: With something like 2/3rds of ECN valuation coming back to me as a dividend (!) I will be losing a fair bit of my financial exposure within my portfolio. I do like the smallcap Fintech space. Do you have any suggestion on where to start looking to gain more exposure? I have GSY on a full tank and so not an option. Should I buy more ECN now or wait?

Q: Will the ex dividend date for the special dividend be at a future date??? Trying to assess whether to buy the stock to take advantage of this payment. Thanks

Q: I currently own Fair Isaac (FICO) and it has done very well the past few years. Recently the stock has been dropping. I'm assuming it's based on the current news. Apparently the US banks are using the Fico credit score less and are starting to use their own credit score system. Also congress is proposing to create their own credit score system. All this means that there could be less business for Fico going forward. Should I hold or starting trimming my position in Fico?
Thanks