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Gold/Mining/Energy : BCE Emergis - global e-commerce -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sPD who wrote (241)	1/5/1999 1:09:00 AM
From: rocki	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1341

What happened? Richard, sorry I thought I finally had a nice table set up, I just went back to it, what a mess! But you can see the Co's listed. >>Sometimes you're better off doing your own d.d. rather than following analysts opinions blindly. Agree, the main reason why I am in the middle of transferring my account to a discount broker. When a complete novice like myself does better than a broker with all their available facilities, its time to do it by your self. There is only one person who is going to look after your money!

To: sPD who wrote (241)	3/14/1999 11:33:00 PM
From: rocki	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1341

Top 30 for Que Here is an update of the the top 30 picks, BCE Emergis is #1 performer. I did not include chart showing all the Co's. It was a real hassel last time. Last para the best. Tracking the "Top 30" BY CHRISTINE DECARIE In the July 1998 issue of the Montreal Business Magazine, thirty companies were featured as the brokers' choice for the leading publicly traded growth companies in Quebec. Here we present our ongoing analysis of the performance of the portfolio. Since the original publication of the lop 30 portfolio, this 'universe' of companies has performed well above their relative indices In the calculation of the portfolio performance we assume that each of the 30 companies has an equal weighting at the beginning of the period (June 1,1998). For the eight month period starting on June 1, 1998 and ending f January 31, 1999 the portfolio was up 4.74% and the median company was up 1.9%. This performance was above the TSE 300 index which was down 10.3%, the Nesbitt Burn Quebec Small Cap index that was up 2.3% and the Levesque Beaubin Quebec Small Cap index which was down 1.0%.. Of the universe, six companies generated returns in excess of 60%, namely BCE Emergis, formerlv known as MPACT lmmedia Corporation ({83.l%), Cogeco Cable +67,2%, Saturn Solutions +65.3%, UAP +65.2%, and Kaufel Group +63.3. On the other hand, the worst performing companies during the same period included Royal Aviation Inc. (-63%), Paperboard Industries International (-40,7%), Transat A.T.lnc (36 8%) and Informission Group (-31.6%). Within that group Royal Aviation and Transat A.T. Inc are competitors in the charter and tour packaging business. A combination ot heavy competition, due to excess capacity the weakness of the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar and an economic slowdown have hurt the profits of those companies, hence their stock performance. If we look at the performance of the Top 30 since our last review (October 31, 1998), the portfolio has again outperformed all the indices with a return of 28.1% while the median company in the portfolio had a return of 20.3%. During that same period the TSE 300 index was up 8.8%, while the Nesbitt Burns Quebec Small Cap index was up 18.7% and the Levesque Beaubien Quebec Small Cap index was up 24.4%. Two companies in that group generated returns in excess of 100% in a space of three months, namely BCE Emergis with a return of 156.3% and Saturn Solutions with a return of 121.1%. It is interesting to note that throughout these periods the clear winner was BCE Emergis, a company providing e-commerce and EDI (elec-tronic data interchange) products, services and value added network services to corporations and govern-ments. Therefore, even the Top 30 universe has not been immune to the Internet craze which has bolstered several stocks. This company is well positioned to take advantage of the expected growth in electronic and on-line commerce. Furthermore, its affilia-tion with BCE, which owns 65% of the company, brings to BCE Emergis the financial strength, the hacking of a well known and well run enterprise, network capacity and access to a customer base. When we value this company in terms of price to sales or enterprise value to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation) it is highly valued relative to its American peers. The Internet bubble has been pushing stocks to high levels and the scarcity of Canadian investment alternatives in this sector makes BCE Emergis the only large capitalization pure play available. This company should be followed very closely and market corrections should be used as buying opportunities. Christine Decarie is a Partner and Portfolio Manager with Investors Group Investment Management