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2012-03-29

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Luxury and Spacious one bedroom condo


2011-10-30

The West is grabbing a growing share of investment capital


The Western provinces are taking a bigger share of Canadian business investment as a result of the global commodities boom, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report on mergers and acquisitions shows.


Ontario and Quebec continue to be the top investment destination, according to the report Deals Quarterly Special Feature, but the two Central Canada provinces are losing market share to the West. The report looks at merger and acquisition activity province-by-province over the last 10 years.

“There is certainly a shift, a trend,” Kristian Knibutat, PwC Canadian deals leader, said in a teleconference on the report Friday.
He said the geographic shift comes as no surprise, given the “super cycle” that commodities have been experiencing over the decade.
The PwC report shows that on the sell side of M&As — companies being acquired — Ontario dropped from 37 per cent of the volume and 47 per cent of the value in M&A activity in 2000, to 32 per cent of volume and 31 per cent of value by 2011.
In contrast, B.C., grew from 17.5 per cent of the volume and five per cent of the value in M&A sell-side activity in 2000, to 20 per cent of volume and 16 per cent of value by 2011.

On the buy-side, however, Ontario has dominated M&A activity. The volume of deals where an Ontario company was the acquisitor, slipped from 44 per cent to 37 per cent, but the value spiked from 41 per cent to 70 per cent.

“Mining has become a No. 1 target sector for each of Ontario and British Columbia,” said Knibutat. “They certainly benefited significantly from the commodities super cycle. In 2000, Ontario and B.C. had about seven or eight per cent each activity in mining. Today, the percentages for Ontario would be closer to 20 per cent and for B.C., 54 per cent.

“That’s driven in a large part by the fact that both Toronto and Vancouver are global capital market centres and recognized as such for the resource industries, and mining has become the No. 1 targeted sector in both of these provinces.”
Knibutat added, however, that much of the deal-making takes place outside of Canada.

“A lot of the assets acquired are often in foreign jurisdictions,” he said. “There’s a lot of deal-making activity in the commodity-driven space and a lot of deal-making activity outside of Ontario and outside of Canada.”

Knibutat noted there has been a decrease in activity in the shale gas sector, largely because of the weak overall economy and technological changes in gas extraction that have lowered the price of gas in North America.
Pipelines to the West Coast are the driver that would lead to an increase in M&A activity in the shale gas sector, he said.
“Certainly we are seeing a push to be able to get shale gas out to the Coast and to overseas markets where the pricing is different.
Knibutat noted that countries as distant as India have an appetite for shale gas businesses.
“I expect it will open that market up for some further M&A activity if they are able to resolve that particular challenge of getting the gas outside of the Canadian market.”
In B.C., the report states, 290 targets worth $8.7 billion have been acquired for the first three quarters of 2011. Values are down significantly from 2010’s $21.4 billion, when two of the largest mining deals in the world involved B.C. assets. That year, Kinross Gold paid $7.2 billion US for Redback Mining, a B.C.-based company with assets in Africa. Western Coal, which operates in B.C. was also taken over by Walter Energy for $3.3 billion.

Forestry, the report notes which has had “a conspicuously low level of activity” for some time, is going through a buying “renaissance” this year, led by the $1 billion purchase of TimberWest Forest by two Canadian pension funds, the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. and the Public Sector Investment Board.

On the buy-side, 500 transactions worth $6.3 billion have taken place in B.C. so far this year. Not surprisingly, 75 per cent of all deal volumes was in the resource sector.

The report ranks B.C. as fourth in Canada in terms of M&A activity, behind Ontario, Quebec and Alberta.
PwC also released its regular quarterly report on M&A activity Friday, which showed bank and pension fund buying dominated the quarter and sheltered the deal-making market from what would otherwise have been a dramatic slowdown. Excluding the institutional buys, the value of M&A activity was down 25 per cent from the second quarter.
There were 756 M&A announcements during the quarter worth $756 billion.

ghamilton@vancouversun.com


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/West+grabbing+growing+share+investment+capital/5624247/story.html#ixzz1cJeG5lWr

2011-10-29

The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer 2012


By: ctvbc.ca
Date: Thursday Oct. 13, 2011 11:04 AM PT
The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer 2012
June 16-17, 2012
Vancouver through the Pacific Northwest

During one epic weekend, June 16-17 2012, thousands of men and women will rally in Vancouver to cycle through the Pacific Northwest in two days to be a part of history in the making. The money raised will support breakthrough research and discovery of new cancer therapies which will benefit treatment at the BC Cancer Agency.

With 45% of Canadian men and 40% of Canadian women developing cancer in their lifetime, the money raised will drive crucial cancer research and new cancer treatments at the BC Cancer Agency, Canada's leading cancer research centre and the only cancer centre in Canada entirely dedicated to cancer research and care.

This will be the fourth Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer benefiting BC Cancer Foundation, a multi-day event for those looking to do something big, even epic in the fight against cancer.
The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer benefiting BC Cancer Foundation begins in Vancouver with Opening Ceremonies on the morning of Saturday, June 16 with Riders embarking on the first leg of their journey stopping to camp overnight finishing on Sunday, June 17.

The Riders will be supported by hundreds of Volunteers and Crew Members, providing meals, water and snack stops, gear transport, portable restrooms, safety on the course, comprehensive medical services and an overnight campsite complete with tents, hot showers and entertainment.

Join today as a Rider or step up your commitment and become an Ambassador. All you need is motivation, a bike, and a helmet. Become part of this epic weekend atconquercancer.ca or call 888.771-BIKE (2453).

Occupy protesters to march for 'Robin Hood tax'


By: The Canadian Press
Date: Saturday Oct. 29, 2011 10:27 AM PT
He robbed from the rich and gave to the poor -- and that's why Occupy Vancouver protesters will be marching in support of Robin Hood today.

Participants of the Occupy movement around the world are expected to rally in favour of a so called "Robin Hood tax."
They want G-20 leaders to impose a one per cent tax on all financial transactions and currency trades, arguing it would generate massive amounts of cash that could be used to help society.
Vancouver police say they'll monitor the march this afternoon along with Occupy protests planned for Sunday at a downtown cathedral and another Monday near a Skytrain station.

2011-10-18

Debt surrounding Vancouver's Olympic Village still unknown

Vancouver’s troubled Olympic Village could still wind up costing taxpayers as much as $100 million in unrecovered debt despite herculean efforts to sell the project’s remaining units, Coun. Geoff Meggs said Tuesday.

His pronouncement came after City Manager Penny Ballem reported to council that the city still has outstanding loans of $446 million even though it has managed to sell 173 more units this year and still has another 301 to sell.

Making much of the fact that a civic election is just around the corner, Meggs told reporters he believes the city has made major efforts to get itself out of a $1-billion hole dug by the previous Non-Partisan Association council.

But, he said, he’s skeptical the city will be able to close the gap between what it loaned Millennium Developments before forcing it into court-ordered bankruptcy protection, and what it will get for all of the assets.......

Read more : http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Debt+surrounding+Vancouver+Olympic+Village+still+unknown/5570224/story.html

By JEFF LEE, VANCOUVER SUN October 18, 2011 7:06 PM

2011-10-12

Selling price of new homes drops in Metro Vancouver in August: Stats Can

New home prices in Canada edged up 0.1 per cent in August for the second straight month, showing more moderate increases than in the second quarter, according to Statistics Canada data released on Wednesday.
New home prices in Canada edged up 0.1 per cent in August for the second straight month, showing more moderate increases than in the second quarter, according to Statistics Canada data released on Wednesday.
Photograph by: Norm Betts, Bloomberg
The selling price of new homes dropped by 0.4 per cent in Metro Vancouver in August, according to the monthly new housing price index, released today by Statistics Canada.

Victoria also experienced a decline of 0.3 per cent, month over month, but Vancouver experienced the most significant decline as builders recorded lower negotiated selling prices and relied more on promotional pricing to generate sales, according to the report.

Compared to August of last year, the selling price of new residential homes has dropped in Metro Vancouver by 0.3 per cent.

Prices were up across much of Canada as 16 of the 21 metropolitan areas surveyed experienced an increase, pulling the index up by 0.1 per cent overall in August, compared to July.

The metropolitan region of Toronto and Oshawa contributed the most to the national increase.

Regina also led other markets, posting the largest single metropolitan increase of 1.2 per cent, due primarily to more costly building materials.

Between August 2010 and August 2011 the NHPI was up by 2.3 per cent in Canada.

The NHPI measures negotiated selling prices of new residential houses between contractors and buyers over consecutive monthly periods.

eduggan@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) Reuters
By Evan Duggan, Vancouver Sun October 12, 2011 7:11 AM