(SJR.B: TSX) – Class B share
Initial investment in 1997: $1,000
Value of investment today: $8,765*
The 1970 Klondike Days Parade was just marching past J.R. Shaw’s Jasper Avenue office window when he got the good news that Shaw Cable had just won a cable license for half of Edmonton. Although the crowds were cheering wildly for parade marshals Peter Lougheed and Harry Strom, to Shaw it felt like Edmontonians were celebrating the cable company’s victory. Seven companies had applied to the CRTC that year to provide local TV stations, one American channel and one non-American one.
By April 1997, when Alberta Venture featured J.R. Shaw on the cover of our first issue, Shaw had become the third largest cable company in the country with 1.5 million subscribers. Today the company has more than 2.2 million cable subscribers, 670,000 digital cable customers, 1.3 million Internet clients, 869,000 Star Choice subscribers and 231,000 digital phone subscribers.
*Calculation is based on a split-adjusted price and does not include dividends, Class A Shares (SJR.A) or shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange (SJR)
The Forzani Group Limited
(FGL: TSX)
Initial investment in 1997: $1,000
Value of investment today: $5,525
A value investor would have jumped all over The Forzani Group Limited stocks in November 1997, the first time that Alberta Venture featured the Calgary-based sporting goods retailer. For more than 20 years, the company had been operating successfully, but in 1994 the company become the target of a turf war instigated by U.S.-based retailers Sportmart Inc. and Sports Authority Inc., who both wanted their share of Canada’s $4.9 million market. To ward of U.S. competitors, CEO and president John Forzani rolled out an aggressive expansion plan, purchasing the national Sports Experts chain and snatching up real estate across Canada. It was the kind of aggressive defensive play that Forzani, a former National Football League player, had executed so many times on the field, but off the field the outcome wasn’t the same. The company lost money and teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. Current CEO Bob Sartor was brought in to turn the company around. Through financial restraint and cost-cutting measures that saw less profitable stores shut down, the company was in the black again by 1997. “We had no choice but to establish ourselves as a national company,” said Sartor in 1997. “Our strategy against the U.S. worked.”
Suncor Energy Inc.
(SU:TSX)
Initial investment in 1997: $1,000
Value of investment today: $11,495*
Before Rick George joined Suncor Energy Inc. in the early ’90s, the company’s books were bleeding red. Suncor had pioneered oilsands extraction and upgrading, and was among the five largest mining operations in Canada, but had yet to see profitable growth. George’s mission was clear and within two years of his arrival, Suncor was celebrating profitable growth. In July 1997, when George first appeared in Alberta Venture, Suncor’s revenue had hit $164 million and production was 77,600 barrels per day (bpd). The company announced revenues of $9.7 billion and 171,000 bpd for 2005.
*Calculation is based on a split-adjusted price and does not include dividends
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