Arawak, BCE, Research In Motion, WestJet: Canada Equity Preview

By John Kipphoff

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may have unusual price changes in Canadian trading today. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are from the yesterday's close in Toronto.

The Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index gained 0.2 percent to 14,441.13.

Arawak Energy Corp. (ABG CN): The Canadian company exploring for oil and gas in Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan, said it plans to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange. Arawak will maintain its Toronto Stock Exchange listing, the Jersey, U.K.-based company said today in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service. The shares fell 3.9 percent to C$2.50.


BCE Inc. (BCE CN): BCE is being told by investors to skip its quarterly dividend payment, in the hope that retaining the C$294 million ($290.84 million) cash will persuade banks to keep to their loan commitment for the buyout of Canada's largest phone company, the Globe and Mail reported., without naming the investors.

BCE has agreed to a C$42.75-a-share takeover offer from a group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The deal depends on a C$32 billion ($31.7 billion) debt package being negotiated by banks including Citigroup Inc. and Toronto- Dominion Bank, the newspaper said. BCE's board is expected to make a decision on the 36.5 cent-a-share payout it by June 30. The shares rose 0.9 to C$37.55.

Compton Petroleum Corp. (CMT CN): The natural gas producer that's seeking a buyer said it agreed to sell four groups of assets for $218 million. Compton, based in Calgary, agreed to sell properties with production of the equivalent of 3,700 barrels of oil a day. The shares fell 2.3 percent to C$12.61.

Husky Energy Inc. (HSE CN): The oil and gas producer controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing said it signed an accord with the China National Offshore Oil Corp. for an exploration block in China's South China Sea. Cnooc, as the Beijing-based company is known, is China's biggest offshore oil producer. Husky fell 0.4 percent to C$47.94.

Jean Coutu Group Inc. (PJC/A CN): Rite Aid Corp., the U.S. drugstore chain 30 percent owned by Jean Coutu, posted its fourth straight quarterly loss after integrating the 1,800 Brooks and Eckerd locations it bought last year. Rite Aid reported a net loss of $156.6 million, compared with profit of $27.6 million a year earlier. Sales rose to $6.61 billion from $4.43 billion. Jean Coutu fell 0.9 percent to C$8.63.

Magna International Inc. (MG/A CN): An Austrian unit of Magna, North America's biggest car-parts maker, will produce Porsche SE's Boxster and Cayman models, the German carmaker said. Magna will replace Metso Oyj's Valmet Automotive division from 2012, Porsche said. Magna gained 2.5 percent to C$65.99.

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM CN): The maker of the BlackBerry e-mail phone missed analysts' profit estimates for the first time in five quarters and gave a disappointing forecast amid higher spending to take on Apple Inc.'s new iPhone.

Second-quarter profit will be as low as 84 cents a share, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said yesterday. That missed the average prediction by analysts of 92 cents, according to a Bloomberg survey. The stock dropped 9.4 percent in early U.S. trading, and 0.6 percent to C$141 during regular trading in Toronto yesterday.

Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM CN): Talisman's Norwegian unit discovered a ``small oil column'' in a wildcat well near the Varg Field the North Sea, Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority said. The find is between 100,000 and 250,000 standard cubic meters of recoverable oil, which will be produced through Varg starting on July 5, the regulator said. Talisman fell 2.3 percent to C$22.31.

WestJet Airlines Ltd. (WJA CN): Canada's second-biggest airline was raised to ``buy'' from ``neutral'' by Fadi Chamoun at UBS. The Toronto-based analyst set a 12-month share-price target of C$19. WestJet added 1.1 percent to C$14.26.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Kipphoff in Toronto at jkipphoff@bloomberg.net.