Archive for Germany
Canadian REIT’s, foreign assets…
Posted by: | CommentsFebruary is slipping away. Two items in the Financial Post a week ago caught my attention.
Canadian REIT’s with foreign assets.
The existing one that I have considered is the Dundee International REIT, which currently has all of its assets in Germany.
If the trend continues investors will have to pay more than $11 per unit for the next chance to buy a newly issued unit from Dundee International REIT, the first Canadian REIT to have all its operations outside of Canada.
Before the markets closed on Monday the issuer which owns and operates about 13.3 million square feet of gross leasable area of office, industrial and mixed use properties across Germany, announced a bought deal. (The German Post Office is its biggest tenant.) It plans to raise about $220-million from an offering priced at $10.90 per unit. At the time of the offering the units were trading at $11.33, meaning that they were priced at a 4% discount. At the time of pricing the units were down $0.06 on the day.
This offering is its fourth since going public in mid-2011. The good news: all the financings (except one) have been at higher prices while the over-allotment options on all the financings have been exercised. The other bit of good news: the deals have led to an increase the float of the company that has a market cap of about $800-million. In its IPO, it sold units and convertible debentures. All up it raised $471.50-million – of which $310.50-million was in equity.
Dundee International REIT closed Monday, February 11th at $11.07 with a nice yield of 7.23%.
The second article discussed the trend of REIT’s with non-Canadian assets.
The message of a number of recent deals seems to be: bring me a yield based on real estate assets and, by the way, we are seemingly indifferent to where the real estate is based or the type of underlying assets.
There are at least four real estate deals currently working their way through the registration process or the marketing period of which three are non-Canadian-based. Indeed, the foreign aspect of the deals is something of a trend, as last month Agellan Commercial REIT completed a repriced $135-million initial public offering based on commercial real estate in the U.S. and Canada.
I like Germany and I like Australia, it seems I can invest in both.
Australian REIT Income Fund. In what is the first of its kind for Canadian retail investors, the issuer is seeking about $100-million to be invested in REITs and other real estate issuers listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The idea is generate a yield (about 5.5% a year based on a $12 a unit purchase price) and capital gain. The Australian REIT sector is large (about A$89-billion), which makes it the fourth-largest in the world, but is very concentrated. Australian-based Macquarie Private Portfolio Management is the portfolio manager, Toronto’s Harvest Portfolio’s Group is the manager.
But the issuer is technically not a REIT but rather a closed-end fund that will invest in real estate companies.
Emma Hewitt and Cosmic Gate at Flames Central…
Posted by: | CommentsFriday, June 29, 2012, I attended the performance of the German DJ duo, Cosmic Gate and featuring Australian singer Emma Hewitt at Flames Central.
For me, Emma was the main reason for attending and I hope Emma can come back to a show truly built around her singing.
Only a few decent shots to choose from….
Emma Hewitt, Bossi and Nic Chagall wearing the ball cap
At this point, being in the balconey seems the much more roomier choice
Financing Canada’s Armed Forces…
Posted by: | CommentsAn interesting graphic from Saturday’s National Post.
Canada’s military spending is at $24.7 Billion and just over 1% of GDP. That’s not enough and Canada can, in fact, afford more and should be spending more.
Canada should be closer towards Germany, which spends $46.7 Billion. For Canada, this amount is in the area of 2% of GDP.
Canada’s area is 9,984,670 sq. km while Germany is 357,022 sq. km.
or as the CIA Factbook describes Germany’s size – “slightly smaller than Montana”
Canada’s coastline is 202,080 km while Germany’s is 2,389 km.
Snapshots (11)
Posted by: | CommentsA hectic week moves towards the weekend and towards the halfway point of October.
I love books!
A photo from the book fair in Frankfurt, Germany, caught my eye. Courtesy of the Globe and Mail’s Best pictures section.
Andrea Bauer of the German publishing house Droemer-Knaur makes final adjustments on a large bookshelf at the book fair in Frankfurt, Germany
Canada…and Australia, need submarines…
Posted by: | CommentsBoth the Calgary Herald and Globe and Mail have articles today on Canada’s submarine mess.
Amid endless refits and repairs, the subs have spent far more time in dry dock than patrolling Canada’s coasts in the 13 years the navy has owned them.
And shockingly, none of the four subs is operational. Only one is in water, HMCS Victoria, which is slated to make its first dive later this fall after a major overhaul.
Not one of the subs is weapons-ready. It will be at least another two years before the subs are equipped to fire torpedoes. And it will cost Ottawa an estimated $125-million to retrofit the ships to fire the same Mk 48 torpedoes used on its now-retired Oberon-class submarines.
Remember dear reader, then Prime Minister Jean Chretien dithered and delayed the purchase of the used British subs for three years allowing the subs to corrode and deteriorate.
The Type 214 submarine
Submarines are vital to Canada’s Defence. Especially with China’s clear ambitions in the Indian and Pacific oceans and…Canada’s backyard, the Arctic ocean.
Zhang says under current international law, the Arctic does not belong to any country, but it has been divided due to ambitious expansion by nearby countries.
He says Beijing must speak out in the international community to “stand up for its interests” concerning both resources and navigation in the Arctic.
My advice to the government.
1. Pursue an immediate lease on one German Type 212 submarine.
2. Purchase four or five Type 214 subs, perhaps a lengthened version. Invite Australia to join us. Their Collins class subs have proven to be a disappointment.
Astute Class Nuclear Powered Submarine
3. Purchase Astute Class Nuclear powered submarines. The Astute’s need no refueling for their 25+ year lifespan.
4. Start building Astute’s in Canada. Again, invite Australia to participate in the purchase.
I would like to see 5-6 diesel electrics combined with 12-14 Astute’s.
Ice or no ice, it belongs to Canada….
Posted by: | CommentsRegardless of how much ice is melting or not melting, I am an advocate for Canada becoming much more active in patrolling and securing our Arctic.
I support building new icebreakers as well as Astute Class nuclear powered submarines.
The Astutes require no refueling during their 25 years+ life. Two could initailly be built in the UK and I would like to see a program where at least one Astute is always under construction in Canada.
Canada's Louis St. Laurent
Ten years past her prime
There has been plenty of talk about ice and Canada’s Arctic. A lot of that talk comes from people who are not Canadian and are not looking out for Canada’s best interests.
Here are links to several recent items.
I’ll start with a Globe and Mail article on Prime Minister Harper addressing China’s lust for stealing Canada’s resources.
On Friday, a reporter with the official Chinese news service who is accompanying the Prime Minister on his annual summer tour, asked him to clarify his position.
“It seems like there are some local media reports that the Arctic region belongs to the Arctic countries and it’s not the business of the rest of the world,” the Chinese reporter said. “What is your comment on this opinion and what role do you think the rest of the world can play in the Arctic region affairs?”
Mr. Harper responded by saying that vast areas of land and significant territorial waters within the Arctic are under the sovereignty of various countries, including Canada.
Second is a Globe and Mail article on Asian shipping firms thinking they are about to get an “easy sail” through Canadian waters.
The shipping executives who have gathered in Honolulu readily admit that their interest in Arctic waterways is strictly commercial. They just want assured access to any new and cost-efficient routes.
I point out to them that the Arctic will be a risky place for ships even after the multiyear ice is gone, because of powerful storms, shallow and poorly charted waters, seasonal darkness and the extreme remoteness of the region. When I tell them about the danger of icing – when ocean spray freezes on the superstructure of a ship, causing it to become top-heavy – their eyes grow large with concern.
Third is an excellent read from Autonomous Mind. The media love to talk about melting ice, winter ice it seems, is so much less sexy.
The American fleet of icebreakers numbers three – for now. It boasted two of the most powerful non-nuclear icebreakers on the seas, Polar Sea and Polar Star, but that changed some years ago. Polar Sea is to be decommissioned next month and Polar Star has been undergoing a re-fit since 2006, but there is speculation it might never to return to service. The third, Healy is not designed for heavy icebreaking of the nature required in Antarctica.
This begs the question, why did the NSF not properly maintain the US icebreaking fleet? Could it be the faith in its own belief that global warming is reducing ice cover and therefore spending money on icebreakers would be a waste? No matter, the NSF was forced into an embarrassing and desperate search for a suitable icebreaking replacement.
I will end off with two items from the Thursday, September 1st, Globe and Mail.
The first article plays up the “oh no, the ice is melting” theme.
Decades of delay – the Louis St. Laurent, Canada’s largest icebreaker, is 42 years old and was supposed to be scrapped 10 years ago – may finally be ending. The Harper government is expected to finally sign a $1-billion deal for a new super-icebreaker to be delivered by 2017.
The second item from Thursday compares the icebreaking fleets of Russia, United States, South Korea, Germany and China.
China’s Xue Long (Snow Dragon) caught Canada by surprise – and exposed the inadequacy of its surveillance when it appeared off Tuktoyaktuk, far inside Canada’s claimed territorial waters, in 1999.
China’s polar ambitions seem unbounded.
Beijing wants a seat at the Arctic Council table, has developed a powerful polar presence and is exploring new export trade routes. An even larger and more powerful icebreaker will launch in 2013, and more are expected to follow.
Canadian wheat feeding the Middle East…
Posted by: | CommentsI was catching up on some reading and an article from Thursday’s August 18th National Post caught my eyes….
Middle East looks to Canada’s West for wheat supply
Last year, every second piece of flatbread eaten by a Saudi Arabian was baked with grains grown and harvested on Canadian soil. It “was one of the biggest Canadian sales ever,” Canadian Ambassador David Chatterson told a gathering of Saudi businessmen in November.
This year, the grain-hungry Middle Eastern country is expected to go through two million tonnes of wheat, most of which will come from either Germany or Canada.
Across the border, Iraq’s bakeries are also stocked primarily with Canadian grain. Last year, the Persian Gulf country bought 1.1 million tonnes, making it the world’s largest non-U.S. buyer of Canadian wheat.
And it would seem, the Middle Eastern appetite for Canadian wheat will likely continue to grow.
As Middle Eastern populations rise and growing conditions become more unpredictable, Canadian wheat prospects in the area are only expected to increase. The Middle East is home to some of the most waterstressed countries on Earth.
Serial droughts have hit the region four years in a row, causing a significant spike in food prices. High food costs in Egypt and Tunisia were one of the contributing factors behind the Arab Awakening.
Morace quits on Canada…
Posted by: | CommentsI was catching up on some reading Sunday afternoon.
I was very surprised to see in the Globe and Mail that Carolina Morace (and her entire coaching staff) had quit as coach of Canada’s Women’s National Soccer Team.
With Morace’s departure, the CSA will now have to work quickly to find a successor. Qualifying for London 2012 takes place in Vancouver in January. Two teams from the CONCACAF region which includes the United States and Mexico will advance to the Olympics.
Carolina Morace
From Richard Starnes of the Ottawa Citizen.
Because of the failure, Wednesday’s debriefing was bound to get a little tough.
Although none of those at Wednesday’s day-long Ottawa meeting was prepared to discuss what happened, it appeared clear that aspects of training, tournament preparation, performances and how to refine the program to avoid a repeat of what had happened in Germany were under close scrutiny.
“It is normal after major competitions we would review and debrief,” CSA general secretary Peter Montopoli said Friday. “In this case, it was a little more formal than usual since we have partners in the program.
Canada’s 2011 World Cup Group….
Posted by: | CommentsThe Canadian Women were in Group A of the FIFA 2011 World Cup.
Hosts and defending Champions Germany, along with France and Nigeria were the other teams in the group.
Would it be fair to say that not many folks would have picked France to be the last team standing from this group?
Canada’s World Cup was a massive disaster! Germany had three wins and then got knocked out by Japan in the quarter finals.
France had two wins and a loss in round play before beating England in the quarter finals. Of the four quarter finals, I enjoyed the France/England game the most.
One of the reasons was the play of Gaëtane Thiney.
Gaetane is an impressive player…and mighty cute to boot.
The France/USA semi final should be quite interesting.
Gaetane Thiney scored
two goals against Canada
Countdown to Germany…
Posted by: | CommentsThe FIFA Women’s World Cup begins Sunday June 26th.
Stephen Brunt has a good read leading up to the next weekend’s opening matches, Canada plays host Germany, Sunday June 26th at 10am Calgary time.
Brunt interviews one of the top players in the world, Canada’s Christine Sinclair and the impact that coach Carolina Morace has had on the players.
Morace, who played internationally for Italy, decided to start from scratch, breaking down the players’ skills, making them relearn the basics, teaching them a possession-oriented, short-passing style, all of which is easier said than done given that the team is together only occasionally, and then not at home, but at their training base in Italy.
Both Morace and the game she has brought with her have been a revelation for Sinclair.
