Description: Coffee chain Second Cup may be looking for a buyer. It is revising its strategic plan in which it had targeted opening up to 85 new stores by 2018. With sales down 1.2 per cent this year, Second Cup might have trouble meeting an upcoming debt payment. But there are a couple of potential… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Advanced Accounting
Finally after seven years
Description: After seven long years, it looks like Nortel pensioners will have a better deal as this bankruptcy saga winds down. While pensioners are probably relieved to see issues settled, it has been a very expensive process. The total for legal and professional services paid out of the Nortel funds is over $2.5 billion, making… Read more »
Asset recycling
Description: Asset Recycling is a fancy phrase Canadian governments are now using for what we used to call privatization – another invented word that grated on many when it entered the vocabulary. Asset recycling means that governments will sell off older ‘legacy’ capital assets – like in Ontario’s partial sale of Ontario Hydro – in… Read more »
Exxon and the SEC
Description: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is conducting an investigation into the way Exxon has been accounting for its oil reserves. The SEC – plus a number of state authorities – have been posing questions as to why Exxon has not joined other oil and gas producers in writing down the value of… Read more »
Profits up; time for cuts
Description: Despite the fact that profits are up, Scotiabank announced that it is cutting jobs and closing branches. With consumers moving more and more transactions online, and banks bracing for Uberization of the banking world, Scotia is looking towards an uncertain future. But Scotia is not alone. Other banks have been cutting as well, and… Read more »
Tax Expenditures
Description: Have you ever heard of tax expenditures? Maybe you know them by some of their other names, such as the Public Transit Tax Credit or the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit. These tax subsidies, offered to select groups of Canadians – often those in higher income groups – tend to fly under the radar. Unlike normal … Read more »
50 Cents Worth
Description: Hip hop entertainer 50 Cent has lots of assets. The only problem is, he has even more liabilities. His application for bankruptcy hit a bit of a road block this week when an attorney representing the trustee’s office asked for a deeper look at the rapper’s finances. The questioning appeared to have been prompted… Read more »
Going negative
Description: Try this one on for size: you pay the bank for the privilege of holding your money. Sounds pretty strange doesn’t it? But with stagnant economic growth, central banks in several jurisdictions are crossing the boundary between low interest rates and negative rates – effectively charging banks to place their funds with the central… Read more »
Employees will get paid
Description: This is a bit of good news in what has been a week of bad news for Goodwill Industries of Toronto, Eastern, Central and Northern Ontario. Last Sunday when employees arrived for work, they found the doors were locked. The organization is experiencing cash flow problems and employees were wondering if they would be… Read more »
Goodbye to deferred charges
Description: At one time, mutual fund companies dominated the retail sales market for mutual funds. And part of those days were big deferred sales charges (DSC) levied when retail investors wanted to cash in their holdings. But many players in the industry have moved away from deferred charges, to the point where Globe and Mail… Read more »