Absolute Software, Corel, Solana: Canadian Equity Preview

By John Kipphoff

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may have unusual price changes in Canadian trading on today. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are from the Aug. 15 close in Toronto.

The Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index lost 2 percent to 13,096.70.

Absolute Software Corp. (ABT CN): The maker of products that help track stolen laptop computers appointed Carter McCrary as chief operating officer. McCrary, who joined the company earlier this year, previously worked for 11 years at Dell Inc., the second-largest personal-computer maker, Vancouver-based Absolute said in a statement on Canada NewsWire. The shares rose 0.3 percent to C$11.20.

Avenir Diversified Income Trust (AVF-U CN): Canadian financier George Armoyan, though his Clarke Inc. (CKI CN) holding company, bought an additional 598,300 units of Avenir, an investor in oil and gas properties. Clarke and the Armoyan family together control a stake of about 14.5 percent in Avenir following the purchase, according to a statement from Clarke distributed by Canada NewsWire.

Avenir units rose 1 percent to C$7.42. Clarke shares gained 1.2 percent to C$6.69.

Canadian Royalties Inc. (CZZ CN): The company developing the C$500 million ($491 million) Nunavik copper and nickel project was lowered to ``outperform'' from ``strong buy'' at Raymond James & Associates. The shares fell 10 percent to 90 cents.

Corel Corp. (CRE CN): The maker of WordPerfect software said that its majority shareholder withdrew a takeover proposal. Corel Holdings LP, a unit of Vector Capital Corp., offered in March to buy the 31 percent of Corel's shares that it does not already own for $11 apiece. The shares rose 2.2 percent to C$9.61, when they last traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Aug. 1.

Solana Resources Ltd. (SOR CN): The company merging with Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (GTE CN) reported second-quarter profit of $19.5 million (C$20.6 million), compared with a loss of $2.8 million a year earlier. Earnings per share of 15 cents before one-time items exceeded the 9 cent average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The shares fell 5.5 percent to C$4.30.

Gran Tierra, which like Solana explores for oil and gas in Colombia fell 5 percent to C$4.71

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