Leede Insights for 07/17/25
- mitchellmcquiggin
- Jul 17
- 7 min read
Wealth Management
Alimentation Couche-Tard (TSX: ATD) has
Withdrawn their proposal to acquire Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. (TYO: 3382) due to a lack of constructive engagement by Seven & i. Couche-Tard.
AutoCanada Inc. (TSX: ACQ) has entered into definitive agreements to sell 13 franchised dealerships in their U.S. Operations segment for expected aggregate proceeds of approximately $82.7 million which includes approximately $6.4 million for real estate.
The dealerships being sold across multiple purchasers include:
Autohaus of Peoria (consisting of Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Volkswagen dealerships)
Bloomington Automall (consisting of Audi, Lincoln , Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, and Volkswagen dealerships)
Chevrolet of Palatine
Crystal Lake Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram
Hyundai of Palatine
North City Honda
The transactions are subject to customary closing conditions, including OEM approvals, and are anticipated to close in the second half of 2025.
As previously disclosed, the Company classified its U.S. Operations segment as a discontinued operation in its financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2024.
AutoCanada remains actively engaged in the divestiture of its remaining four U.S. dealerships, consisting of Hyundai of Lincolnwood, Kia of Lincolnwood, Toyota of Lincoln Park, and Toyota of Lincolnwood.
Black Diamond Group Limited (TSX: BDI) announced has closed their previously announced “bought deal” public offering of common shares through a syndicate of underwriters.
Pursuant to the Offering, they issued a total of 4,657,500 Common Shares at a price of $9.10 per Common Share for gross proceeds of approximately $42.38 million (which includes 607,500 Common Shares issued in conjunction with the exercise in full of the over-allotment option).
Canadian Net REIT (TSXV: NET.UN) has received approval from the TSXV for the annual renewal of their NCIB.
For their current NCIB that expires on July 31, 2025, the Trust previously sought and received approval from the TSX to repurchase up to 1,028,053 units of Canadian Net.
The Trust did not purchase any Units over the course of this NCIB.
Speculative Investments
Altima Energy Inc. (TSXV: ARH) provided a bi-weekly default status report in accordance with National Policy 12-203 - Management Cease Trade Orders as well as a corporate update on their proposed target acquisitions in Northern Alberta and the status of the previously announced private placement for up to $5,500,000.
On July 2, 2025, they announced they had applied for a management cease trade order (MCTO) with the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) in connection with the delay in filing of its audited annual financial statements for the year ended February 28, 2025, related management discussion and analysis, and CEO and CFO certificates in addition to its NI 51-101 Disclosure for Oil & Gas Activities for the financial year ended February 28, 2025 by the prescribed filing deadline.
At that time, based on information then-available, they expected to file the Required Documents by August 29, 2025.
The MCTO was issued on July 2, 2025, and restricts its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer from trading in securities of the Company, whether direct or indirect, until the Company files the Required Documents and the BCSC revokes the MCTO.
The Company's management continues to work diligently to complete the Required Documents.
They still expect that the Required Documents will be filed by August 29, 2025.
They would also like to announce that it has paid an additional non-refundable deposit of $150,000 for the advancement of the prospective acquisition of a Red Earth Property in Northern Alberta which is located in proximity to the Company's existing Red Earth assets.
The total consideration in the Non-Binding Proposal dated January 23, 2025, to acquire the Red Earth Asset is $1,050,000.
This is an arms-length acquisition.
While they have not entered into a binding agreement with respect to this acquisition at this time and there is no guarantee that the acquisition will be completed, however, the Company anticipates entering into a final binding agreement with respects to the Acquisition upon the closing of the Financing.
On July 8, 2025, they announced that they have negotiated a private placement for gross proceeds of up to $5,500,000, subject to acceptance by the TSXV.
They anticipate closing the private placement on or about Friday, July 18, 2025.
CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: CVV) has received the geochemical assay results from the winter 2025 drill program completed on the Pike Zone at the West McArthur project.
During the winter program, they significantly expanded the high-grade footprint of the Pike Zone and geochemical assay results confirm the best drillholes to date on the project, including composited intervals in WMA079-01 which intersected 8.6 metres at 34.59% U3O8, including 5.5 metres at 53.90% U3O8 at the unconformity and WMA076-01 which intersected 14.8 metres at 14.71% U3O8, including 5.4 metres at 39.67% U3O8 at the unconformity.
Importantly, the Company advanced step out drilling along the C10S corridor to the west of the Pike Zone, where geochemical assays confirm high-grade uranium in WMA095 which intersected 3.5 metres at 1.37% U3O8, including 1.0 metres at 3.16% U3O8 at the unconformity, extending the known strike length of unconformity-associated uranium mineralization to approximately 250 metres.
LithiumBank Resources Corp. (TSXV: LBNK) has been awarded $3,900,000 in non-dilutive funding under the Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) from the province of Alberta to further advance the Boardwalk Lithium Brine Project located in west-central Alberta.
The ERA Program will refund the Company 50% of eligible expenditures for each milestone as it is completed up to a total of $3.9 million.
Funding provided from ERA will be used in achieving the following milestones:
Complete an additional drill hole through the Leduc formation reservoir at Boardwalk to support an advanced reservoir model, collect additional brine.
This test well is situated so it can be converted into a production well in the future.
Conduct longer cycle DLE testing and optimization, focusing on concentration and impurity removal testing, and conversion to lithium carbonate; and,
Complete a Feasibility Study at Boardwalk that assesses a low Capex, modular approach to lithium production.
They expect to complete these tasks by the end of 2026.
PJX Resources Inc. (TSXV: PJX) announced the close of the first tranche of our previously announced non-brokered private placement of 12,430,905 units of the for gross proceeds of $1,652,460.
In the first tranche, they will issue 3,323,285 Units on a "flow through" basis and 2,393,334 Units on a non-flow through basis for gross proceeds of $752,460.
The subscription prices for each of the foregoing are $0.14 per Flow Through Unit and $0.12 per Unit. The 2nd tranche of the offering is expected to close on or about July 31, 2025.
Sitka Gold Corp. (TSXV: SIG) announced assay results from their ongoing 30,000 metre diamond drill program currently underway at their 100% owned, road accessible RC Gold Project located in the Yukon's prolific Tombstone Gold Belt.
Recent results from the Saddle zone, located between the Blackjack and Eiger MRE's, have returned several intersections of near surface multi-gram gold mineralization that lie within the proposed pit boundary of the Blackjack MRE, but are 300 m east of the current resource outline. Assay results of up to 47.6 m of 2.09 g/t gold, including 8 m of 5.07 g/t gold, emphasize the potential of the Saddle zone to significantly increase the Blackjack MRE.
Drilling is currently ongoing with four drill rigs turning at Blackjack, Saddle, Eiger and Rhosgobel and assays are pending for an additional 12,951 metres drilled to date this season.
Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX: WM) has commenced their second phase of drilling at their fully owned Martiniere gold project.
The Phase 2 campaign has been designed to follow up on the positive results returned from its Phase 1 drilling campaign completed in May of this year.
They are continuing to explore the broader mineralized gold system at Martiniere.
Exploration is currently focused along the northwest-southeast trending Bug Lake deformation corridor and satellite targets located within 100 to 500 metres of the Martiniere mineral resource.
During Phase 2, drilling will target potential extensions to high-grade gold mineralization along the Dragonfly, Horsefly and Martiniere North zones, as well as the newly identified Martiniere Northeast target where drill hole MR-25-115 returned a 6.0 metres grading 3.84 g/t Au .
During the first and second quarters of 2025, the Company’s Phase 1 campaign comprised 18 holes totaling 7,225 metres at Martiniere. Wallbridge plans to complete a total of 12,000 to 15,000 metres of drilling during 2025.
Additionally, generative reconnaissance fieldwork has commenced to identify earlier stage greenfields exploration targets along the Detour-Fenelon gold trend. During 2025, greenfields exploration will focus on the Casault, Doigt, Martiniere, Fenelon and
Grasset claim blocks which comprise much of the Company’s 830 km2 regional property position
Charts of the Day
Economics
Canadian-born workforce facing employment challenges
The Canadian-born workforce is also facing more pronounced challenges compared to newcomers, driving roughly 60% of the unemployment rate increase in the last year.
Recent permanent residents are among the only group to see the unemployment rate fall in the last year but, higher vacancy rates suggest this is likely due to a shrinking workforce rather than improved job prospects.
These trends mark a significant shift from recent years when new labor market entrants—particularly recent graduates and immigrants—accounted for the bulk of the unemployment rise.
Growing labor market weakness among Canadian-born and core-to-late career-aged workers likely stems from the concentrated nature of industry-specific softness. Indeed, goods-producing sectors employ a disproportionately high share of late career-aged workers, making them particularly vulnerable to current economic headwinds.
Economic uncertainty also appears to be encouraging some retirees to re-enter the job market as volatile equity markets create financial unease—particularly for those living on a fixed income. This pattern is shown by recent increases in job-seeking activity among those 55 and older who had recently left the workforce.
Markets
What to anticipate for Q2 Earnings for the TSX
TSX Q2/25 EPS is slated to rebound to C$377, up 1.1% quarter-over-quarter and 3.2% year-over-year. While it remains below the Q4/24 all-time high of C$397, the upward path from the Q1/24 lows is intact at this stage. On top-line, the 4.9% sequential drop and the first negative year-over-year print since 2023 at -4.4% is partly due to Energy prices retreating significantly in Q2/25, but also from missing and/or volatile sales consensus figures in the Insurance and Diversified Financials space.
On a 12M trailing basis, TSX profits should reach C $1,494 in Q2/25 (+5.6% year-over-year), finally exceeding the previous all-time high of C$1,491 of Q3/22. 12M trailing sales should also hit a new all-time high once accounting for Financials’ distortion.
Bear or Miss? We see potential for a beat according to our sectorial regression models. Energy downside from lower prices seems overstated a tad. Meanwhile, Materials/Gold miners and Discretionary have room to beat a conservative consensus. Analysts may prefer to err lower especially for Discretionary given the tariff uncertainty. Industrials should come in-line. Finally, we are most fearful for Financials/Banks, where underlying capital market and housing activity remains underwhelming, just as households keep falling behind on their debt payments. Overall, even if Banks PCL keep on rising and despite Energy EPS tumbling, there’s enough potential upside to hope for a beat.
Source: Scotiabank GBM Portfolio Strategy
