Shares of John Labatt Ltd. set a new high for '95 yesterday
"on the strength of market rumors that have leveraged buyout
specialist Gerald Schwartz poised to make a bid for the beer and
entertainment giant." Several analysts said they heard that
Schwartz, CEO of Toronto's Onex Corp., has found a South American
beer company to purchase Labatt's Canadian beer assets. Shares
of Labatt closed up C$1 to 22 1/4 on the TSE. Labatt
President/CEO George Taylor gave no indication a bid is
"looming": "I don't know where these rumors are coming from, they
seem to explode one day and disappear the next. I have not had a
discussion with Gerry at all." Speculation has Schwartz making
an unsolicited bid for the company in the range of C$25 or
C$26/share, breaking up the company and selling its component
parts, which include TSN, 90% of the Blue Jays, CFL Argonauts and
41% of the SkyDome (Paul Brent, FINANCIAL POST, 4/12).
OTHER TORONTO NEWS: Bitove Corp., the Toronto-based
catering company owned by John Bitove, has secured the
concessions rights to the Molson Amphitheater, which opens in May
at Toronto's Ontario Place. It is "widely speculated" that the
Bitove-Molson deal, yet to be announced, is part of a larger
agreement that will award Bitove the concessions to the new
Molson-owned Forum in Montreal, now under construction. "If so,
insiders speculate that Molson Cos. Ltd., risks being criticized,
given the political climate in Quebec, for awarding the Forum
concessions contract to a company outside the province" (William
Houston, Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 4/12). Bitove owns the NBA's
expansion Raptors.
