The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 34

8 THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1996 Top Euiarleay Le mir 3K801S no raises sues get Itaotec gets order ancp.f.v Mcintosh the gazette The top three executives of investment dealer Marleau Lemire which lost $5.2 million last year, received no raises and no bonuses in 1995, according to a management proxy circular sent to shareholders. Hubert Marleau, the company's chairman and chief executive, and company president Andre Lemire, each earned $240,000 in 1995 the same as in 1994 and took home no bonuses, the circular said. At the end of 1994, Lemire and Marleau had each pocketed a $325,467 bonus. Humbert Powell III, a company director and president of Marleau's subsidiary in the United States, earned a salary of $220,000 and no bonus. Paul Moase, president of the company's main operating arm, told shareholders at the annual meeting yester hbj.

mmmm mms ra te it in Credit stock market, mutual-fund investing for ways to add revenues and reduce costs." Two executive vice-presidents of the firm's main operating unit, Marleau Lemire Securities Ronald Mayers and Ronald Campbell, each took cuts in their base salary in 1995, but took home larger bonuses than in 1994. Mayers earned a salary of $90,000 and picked up a $92,000 bonus in 1995, compared with a salary of $100,000 and a bonus of $60,000 the previous year. He resigned from the fir in January. Campbell earned a base salary of $27,658, but took home a $162,384 bonus. In 1994, he earned a salary of $61,250 and had a $94,567 bonus.

A third executive vice-president, Kay Salomon, earned no salary in 1995, but took home a bonus of $348,000 pursuant to an agreement with the company under which she earned commissions. Sa-loman, who resigned her job at the fir in July 1995, earned a lution stemming from its recent deal to acquire U.S. discount broker Water-house Investor Services Inc. The $535-million US. purchase is being paid for partly in cash, partly in stock.

"The buyback is entirely about stopping the effects of dilution," Marinangeli said. "We said we weren't going to dilute so we're going to start buying those shares back Mon day." The bank originally said it would buy back up to 20 million of its common shares, but the price has gone up since then so "we'll probably only buy back 16 million or 17 million," Marinangeli said. TD has 302 million common shares outstanding. Waterhouse will join forces with Green Line to create one of the world's largest discount brokers. The impact won't be felt on TD's balance sheet until the fourth quarter of this year, Marinangeli said, adding it will probably increase earnings about one cent a share.

Laurentian Bank yesterday report ed net income of $12.9 million for the quarter ended April 30, up $3.7 million or 40 per cent from the same quarter of 1995. After payment of dividends on preferred snares, return on common equity was 11 per cent for the quarter compared with 9.1 per cent for the same period last year Net income per common share was 53 cents compared with 44 cents, up by more than 20 per cent. The improvement in profitability was related to a 44-per-cent increase in 'other which now accounts for 27 per cent of the bank's total income compared with 23 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 1995. SANDRA RUBIN CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO The parade of higher bank profits continued yesterday with Toronto-Dominion and National Bank of Canada reporting sharp improvements in the second quarter of 1996. Both credited the explosion in stock market and mutual- fund investing.

TD made a $220-million profit for the three months ended April 30, up from $164 million in the same period a year earlier. That's an increase of 34 per cent 'Our securities businesses are just going great guns," said Dan Marinan-geli, TD's senior vice-president (fi nance). "Green Line and Evergreen are doing just great." He said discount broker Green Line set new records for rev- enues and transactions, and full-service Evergreen Investments more than doubled its revenues. bonus under the commission arrangement in 1994, the company said. Both Mayers and Salomon have jumped Marleau rival Levesque Beaubien Geoffrion a Montreal-based brokerage controlled by the National Bank of Canada.

Marleau's work force, spread out in offices across Canada, the US. and Europe, has shrunk to 170 from a high of 210 last year. The firm specializes in issues involving emerging small- and mid-size high-technology companies in the computer-software, biotechnology and entertainment sectors. In a recent report, investment analyst Albert Thompson of the Moss Lawson firm, said that Marleau Lemire's earnings outlook for 1996 is favorable after its poor 1995. He said the firm is well-capitalized, its stock trades at below book value and "a turnaround appears to have taken place." Bureau en Gros opens 4 stores Bureau en Gros general manager Yvon Samson said yesterday that the office-supply retailer has signed leases to open stores at the four sites previously occupied by the now bankrupt Club Biz mini-chain.

That will bring the number of Bureau en Gros stores in Quebec to 18, employing 700 people. The 18 stores represent an invest ment of $36 million since the Quebec expansion started in July 1993. Samson said there will be other store openings by the end of this year, but could not say how many or where, except that they will be in the Montreal and Quebec City areas. The four have already opened their doors, and will be launched officially tomorrow at the Dollard des Ormeaux, Laval, Greenfield Park and Montreal North locations, he said. Staples Inc.

wholly owns the Business Depot chain in Canada. Bureau en Gros is the Quebec division of Business Depot, the name under which it operates in Ontario. In western Canada, it does business under the Staples banner. Samson said that all the Quebec stores "are profitable and exceed our sales and profits projections." Bureau en Gros had 3 per cent of the office-supply market in March 1994, he said, and about 20 per cent in March 1995. A year later, it has about 28 per cent, he said, coming mostly at the expense of the former Club Biz and the current Pilon chains.

"We also took market share away from Price Club and the department stores like Zellers." In addition to the Quebec division, Staples operates 36 stores in Ontario, 17 in the West and four in the Mar-itimes for a total in Canada of 75 outlets. The new phone system will use a different frequency than current wireless phones. And it will use digital technology rather than analogue, enabling the networks to handle more traffic than today's analogue systems. But the differences end there, said Rogers, who heads Rogers Communications Inc. and its cell-phone subsidiary, Rogers Cantel.

"I'm very excited about PCS, but PCS is nothing but digital cellular on two different frequencies," he said. "There really is no difference." Cantel, with a new countrywide digital network ready to go, already has the capacity to do everything PCS does, he explained. But that's not stopping Rogers from getting into PCS himself. Cantel has one of the four PCS licenses and has a plan in the works to launch the new technology. Memotec Communications Inc.

said it has received an order from a large South Korean bank for about $2 million worth of advanced frame-re lay equipment In a news release, the company said the sale is being made through Hyosung Computers, also of Korea, which is designing and installing the 450-location wide-area network. The bank purchasing the equipment wasn't identified. Domtar to refinance debt Domtar Inc. said it plans to refi nance as much as $430 million U.S. of its debt.

In a news release, the forest-products company said that under the program, it will buy back existing debt and re place it with new public offerings of notes and debentures. Domtar said that today, it intends to launch buyback offers for all of its $155 million principal amount of 11.75-per cent notes due 1999, and all of its $175 million principal amount of 12-per cent notes due 2001. It said it is also prepaying its $100 million, 10.2-per-cent loan due in 1997. Domtar also said it intends to issue, in a public offering in the United States, new notes and new debentures. It said it will make the offering by means of a prospectus.

It said it will file for the of fering with the Quebec Securities Commission and the U.S. Securities and Ex change Commission. Film deal for Coscient Coscient Group Inc. said its S.D.A. Productions Ltd.

subsidiary has en tered into a co-production agreement with Ellipse Programme, a sub sidiary of the European group Canal- Plus, for the production of four made-for-TV movies during the next six months. The productions' total budget is esti mated at $10 million, the company said. Coscient Group is a producer and distributor of television programs and feature films. Mills to curtail output Stone-Consolidated a major supplier of standard and recycled newsprint and uncoated groundwood papers, said it will curtail production at its uncoated groundwood paper mills in Trois-Rivieres and Grand- Mere to balance inventory levels. At the Wayagamack mill in Trois- Kivieres, the shutdown will be from June 22 to July 8.

The Laurentide mill in Grand-Mere will be down from June 15 to June 25, the company said. Satellite firm threatened TORONTO A coalition of six Cana dian broadcast and satellite firms says it plans legal action against a Missis-sauga, electronics company and its distributors. The group wants the company to immediately cease plans to import unlicensed U.S. direct-to-home satellite dishes and systems into Canada. The firm being targeted is RCA Thomson Consumer Electronics Canada which earlier this month announced its intentions to import and sell the technology that would give Canadian consumers access to programming services for which Canadian DTH distributors hold exclusive licenses.

Involved in the potential lawsuit are Alberta-based Allarcom Pay Television Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom); Express Vu TMN Networks Inc. and others. They are supported by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Lobby groups merge TORONTO The Canadian Manufacturers' Association and the Canadian Exporters' Association have merged to form a new business lobby, the Alliance of Manufacturers and Exporters Canada.

The two groups said yesterday the merger takes effect immediately. Stephen Van Houten, president of the manufacturers' group, will head the new alliance, based in Toronto. Exporters' president Mark Drake will become senior vice-president and be based in Ottawa. DOW JONES. CANAUIAN PRESS day that the company has also revamped its compensation systems so that the firm's expenses are more closely linked to revenues that it generates during the year.

Moase said that Marleau Lemire has "virtually eliminated" base salaries for its brokers and sales staff in the retail, institutional equity and bond departments. Instead, it has put people on variable-compensation plans linked closely to the commissions that are earned. "We are fortunate to be making these changes during a bull market," he added. Moase said that after reporting its first quarterly profit since 1994 in the first quarter of 1996, Marleau expects to continue posting improved results throughout the balance of the year. "The market is currently very strong and shows no sign of abating," he said.

"Each of our divisions is significantly ahead of plan and we continue to look percent It was much the same story at National Bank, which reported a second-quarter profit of $71 million, up from $57 million in 1995 an increase of 24 percent. "Where's the big increase coming from? It's our brokerage side, Levesque Beaubien Geoffrion," Jean Dage- nais, National chief accountant, said from the bank's head office in Montreal. "It increased the 'other income' category very significantly "Also, we were anticipating a reduction in interest rates so we positioned our balance sheet to benefit from that" National used derivatives to hedge falling rates and beefed up its portfolio with stocks that profit when rates are heading down, he said. The bank's return on equity hit 13.2 per cent from 10.5 per cent in the second quarter of 1995. The higher profits at National and TD Bank follow hard on the heels of similar increases this week at Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia.

With the fiscal year half over, Canada's Big Banks are on track to smash last year's record profit. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is the last of the major banks to report, with its earnings coming out next week. TD also announced a share buyback yesterday aimed at minimizing the di from Calgary, the company's head office, as part of the airline's long-term plan to consolidate the overhaul of its wide-bodied aircraft in Vancouver. It will continue to overhaul its narrow-bodied jets in Calgary. Canadian's operations are growing particularly fast in Vancouver because Canadian's minority partner, American Airlines, is expanding its Pacific flights through that city.

American has chosen Vancouver because the company has limited access to the airports of San Francisco and Los Angeles. "American is exporting jobs to Canada," said Michael Tretheway, special adviser to the president of the Vancouver International Airport Authority To accommodate the new flights, the Vancouver airport is opening a new terminal building and is hiring thousands of new staff. Staff at Vancouver airport has increased by about 1,200 in the past year to 17,000, with another 2,000 to be added later this year, Tretheway said. With the new staff, Canadian will have at least 17,300 employees, topping its previous record of 17,200 in late 1990. in "Our securities businesses are just going great guns." Dan Marinangeli Marinangeli said areas that were once considered non-traditional banking are becoming increasingly important to TD's bottom line.

"I'm talking about dis count brokerage, investment banking, equity sales and trading, loan sales and syndication, those kinds of things. 'If you look at the propor tion of 'other income' to to- tal income, it's getting bigger." TD's return on equity considered the truest test of a bank's performance increased to 15.1 per cent from 12.1 Beware PCS hype: Ted Rogers Canadian Airlines hiring hundreds in Vancouver CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO Beware of hype leading up to the launch of new wireless PCS phones, warns Ted Rogers, the emperor of Canada's cable and wireless networks. The claim that PCS phones are "lighter, faster and cheaper" than existing cellular phones is smoke and mirrors, Rogers told a telecommunications conference Wednesday. "I believe this image remains in the minds of many consumers and media writers," Rogers told his competitors. "Yet the reality is quite different," he said, waving a phone the size of a calculator in the air.

PCS or personal-communications services has been a hot topic since tire federal government issued four licenses to set up PCS networks last QUEBEC BASED MINERAL PRODUCTS COMPANY Established 50 years, with diversified Canadian and U.S. sales of $4 million Constant profitable performer. Exceptional opportunity for private or Corporate Investors with $1.5 to $2 million capital. Asset write-off tax benefits. Information available Fax (514) 683-5236 Call before 7 p.m.

and we'll have a Gazette at your doorstep first thing tomorrow. 'Weekdays, metropolitan Montreal only Weekends, tall before 12 noon on Saturday, 11a.m. Sunday tor nexrayoeiwry. CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO Canadian Airlines is hiring between 500 and 700 people to work in Vancouver as the airline takes aim at the Asian market. Canadian is turning Vancouver into one of its two North American hubs and the base of its transpacific operations.

Toronto is the other hub. Kevin Jenkins, Canadian's presi dent, said the company is hiring at least 500, and possibly 700, people to staff Vancouver and to handle the business from American Airlines. The hiring includes about 150 flight attendants, as well as baggage and cargo handlers, and the people who ser vice aircraft between flights. Most of them will start work by the end of June. He said virtually all the new flight attendants will speak either Chinese or Japanese in addition to English or French.

This will allow Canadian to compete with foreign airlines on its transpacific flights, where up to 70 per cent of the passengers are Asian residents. Another 160 maintenance workers are being transferred to Vancouver Kecord Date is determined, and announce such date to the Kathryn A. Calder Corportate Secretary SCOTT'S HOSPITALITY INC. DIVIDEND NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that Scott's Hospitality Inc. has announced the declaration of three dividends to be paid subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions related to the bid by Laidlaw Inc.

for all of the outstanding Class shares and Subordinate Voting shares of the Corporation. The dividends, in the amounts of $4.00 per share, $1.00 per share and $1.00 per share, for an aggregate of $6.00 per share, are to be paid on the Class shares and Subordinate Voting shares to the registered holders of such shares on the Record Date. The Record Date for such purposes will be the date three trading days subsequent to receipt by Scott's of notice from Laidlaw (i) that all of the conditions precedent to its bid for the shares of Scott's have been satisfied and waived, provided that at least 50 of the Class shares and Subordinate Voting shares have been tendered and will be taken up under the bid, and (ii) of the first date on which Laidlaw will commence taking un sharp unHor the wh We have space for In Ontario's City of Opportunity a variety of industrial and commercial buildings await your inspection. Call today in confidence for your personal list of available properties. Call Toll Free: fcAV 1-888-CORNWAL CGyKl'lJRQil rH-v ft I s-V; Scott's will provide notice to the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Ontario.

Canada LJ ecodevcity.comwall.on.ca munuedi cjwnange wnen me actual win issue a press release to shareholders. Internet: www.city.cornwall.on.ca lnfomutim nmi dispmihU en ftjapis. i.