Transcontinental (TCL-A) jumped 20% on the back of its announced $2.2B packaging unit divestiture, a price tag that translates to ~9x LTM EBITDA - well above where the stock has traded historically

which limited its ability to grow accretively through M&A. Organic growth has been sluggish too, making now as good a time as any to take the off-ramp at a premium.

Post-close, management plans to make a $20/sh cash distribution and tighten its focus on the printing and media businesses - citing a healthy M&A pipeline...

… that it believes can close at 4-5X EBITDA. Those numbers make sense on the back of the napkin, so we could see more deals like its Middleton Group acquisition soon.

About Bullpen: Bullpen Finance Inc. publishes content on Canadian markets and provides paid research coverage of select Canadian issuers. Bullpen is paid in cash by covered issuers, does not accept stock or options, does not hold positions in covered securities, and does not conduct investment banking business. Bullpen and LodeRock Advisors Inc. are affiliated; LodeRock provides investor relations services to issuers, some of whom are covered by Bullpen Research. When a post discusses a covered issuer, a specific disclosure appears at the top of the post. This post is published for general information purposes. It is not personalized investment advice and is not tailored to any individual reader’s circumstances. Bullpen is not a registered investment adviser or dealer. For full disclosures, including analyst certification, jurisdictional statements, and conflict of interest policies, please see our Legal & Disclosures section on our website.

You might be interested in…