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I don't share the enthusiasm for HSOA's response. Last week, HSOA announced that they had a $100 million contract for a huge retail and office center in Hillsborough. In their response to stocklemon this morning, they say that they are unable to furnish any details due to confidentiality with the developer who remains un-named. However the developer or his agent would still need to apply for numerous permits and those are a matter of public record. Surely, stocklemon checked permit applications in the county and Tampa before he publicly accused HSOA of fraud. Neighbors to such a huge project would need to be notified, public hearings would likely be held and they face many from possible roadblocks along the way. Wetland, drainage and environmental issues, engineering, county requirements for infrastructure, etc, etc. This could drag on for possibly years yet HSOA's announcement last week made it sound like it is much further along in the process. Once again, HSOA has "stretched" the truth and shareholders got burned. Personally, if I owned stock here, I would take advantage of the bounce back this morning to unload my position before the lemon responds again.
Still another good reason to do our own DD and trade our own portfolios....Here's an article about a formerly wildly successful hedge fund manager who luck has definitely turned on him..His clients are now down 36% in the last 2 1/2 years. He was also a hot shot chartist whose system obviously isn't working anymore.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ts/070529/10355006.html?.v=3
OT-Blackjack- I have yet to see a single or double deck game or any good game that is offered on a cruise ship. Most are either 8 deck shoes with a shuffle card that is way too high or they are using those constant shuffling machines which becomes an infinite number of decks.
Captive audience=lousy game.
*Of course if someone knows of a "good" 21 game offered on any cruise ship, I'd sure like to know about it.*
Len, If Brinker were to suddenly switch to sell stocks, how big of an impact do you think that might have on the stock market. I'm just curious, I listen on occasion but I know he has a huge following and his last switch to buy was right on the money. Just curious as to what you think...
ZYNX.. Hank, congrats on the move in this one today. I looked at it and sales are booming but fwiw, here are my concerns:
The company wrote off $393,000 in A/R last quarter. That seems huge in proportion to sales. Business is booming but it also creates a large need for more capital as the units they rent are very expensive upfront and the rental proceeds come in much more slowly. If sales continue to grow they will need more funding. They apparently are already maxed out based on their loan arrangement with Ascendiant. It looks like a loan shark outfit to me. A $275,000 bridge loan last October only netted them $205,000 plus the loan is convertible to stock and they had to throw in 5 year warrants as well. The company is now paying 21% on that loan too! I smell dilution coming to meet their capital needs over the coming year. That could slow this one down.
TAM.v..Picked up more of this one today as it has settled back down to its lows of late April. The feasibility study for Pine Point should be out soon and I think that will get the SP moving North again.
Just read through the 92 page report which is composed of concerns and questions from Canadian authorities and Tamerlanes responses to them. No big roadblocks that I can see but the government certainly leaves no stone unturned. No wonder it takes so long to get a mine going. Here is a link if someone is interested. (Click on reports from Tamerlane).
http://www.mveirb.nt.ca/registry/index.php
Nuts, the Kitco link that curlews provided is their basemetals home page. Kitco's business is buying and selling bullion not selling information from what I can see. I don't think that posting inventory #s will cause them to be removed from the site.
Yes, now I see Kitco's #s are current. I had thought that their numbers were 1 day behind. Thanks, curlews for pointing that out.
LME inventories down again. Saw this in an article, still looking for a reliable site that has current #s.
Copper down 1,625 to 130,250
Zinc down 900 to 75,350
Nickel down 24 to 7698.
Zinc is on the verge of breaking below 75,000 and copper is sitting on the 130,000 level. Metal prices should wake up to those low inventories soon.
Lundin obviously doesn't have enough RNG shares so they are extending their offer hoping to acquire more. They must be hoping and praying that the nickel market tanks in the near term as that is the only way that I can see them garnering more shares with this extension. Lundin's low ball offer is coming back to bite them. I don't see this buyout going through unless they raise their offer.
Changes in LME inventories...One would never know Zinc and Cu inventories continue to decline by looking at today's prices of those metals.
Copper -1475
Aluminium -400
Nickel +366
Zinc -275
Lead -475
TSA.v..Interesting play in in the uranium field. Here's a link to a post by "stateside" on stockhouse about it. I haven't bought any yet but it looks good from what I've seen so far:
http://www.stockhouse.ca/blogs.asp?page=viewpost&blogID=736&postID=18069
A big increase in LME nickel inventories but copper and zinc were both down again...
Copper 137575 -850
Aluminium 83287 -950
Nickel 6834 +1446
Zinc 79200 -225
Lead 48400 +200
Top buy-out candidates....Some numbers crunchers at CIBC have cooked up a list of 50 companies with the characteristics that allegedly give them a higher probability of attracting takeover bids. I saw this report posted on a Stockhouse forum. Mentions miners that we discuss here including QUA, BWR, HBM, NTO, ARG, Blue Pearl and others.
"In a report thats sure to thrill hedge fund clients, CIBC quantitative analyst Yin Luo showed acquired companies share a number of characteristics, all of which show up on an investors screens. This latest instalment in a 16-month-old research project also named 50 potential targets...
Companies that get taken out tend to show lower growth than rivals, along with positive short-term earnings momentum and negative earnings surprises. They also tend to be viewed negatively by analysts. Compared with peers in their sectors, targets have lower price-to-earnings ratios and are relatively small, but their stocks tend to be more liquid.
All of these factors can be plugged into a computer, which will then sort out who fits where in corporate Canada. So who are the targets? Well, one quick caveat: The list did not knock out dual-class stock structures, or companies that would kick up anti-trust issues if acquired by rivals. The CIBC warning label said: We recommend investors use this list as the first screen for more in-depth research...
The hot sectors for M&A are mining, forest products, telecom, information technology and consumer discretionary companies. There are also a handful of income trusts on the list.
Among S&P/TSX 60 companies, the quants see Nova Chemicals, Agrium, Lundin Mining, Teck Cominco and BCE as targets. Obviously, BCE is already in talks, and Teck Cominco has a dual class share structure. Moving down the list, S&P/TSX composite companies that show takeover-friendly characteristics are: - Blue Pearl Mining - HudBay Minerals - Northern Orion Resources - Methanex - Equinox Minerals - Anvil Mining - Aur Resources - Great Canadian Gaming - Eastern Platinum - Manitoba Telecom - Ivanhoe Mines - First Quantum - ATS Automation Toooling - Inmet Mining
Among the income trusts, the list includes five S&P/TSX composite members: - Consumer Waterheaters - True Energy - Daylight Resources - Labrador Iron Ore Fund - GMP Capital The smaller trusts that show up on CIBCs screens are:- Strongco Income Fund - Chemtrade Logistics - Sun Gro Horticulture - Atlantic Power
The final group here are companies that arent in the S&P/TSX composite index, and they are: - Ainsworth Lumber - Tembec - Fraser Papers - Bear Ridge Resources - Aurelian Resources - Birch Mountain Resources - MKS - Quadra Mining - Collicutt Energy Services - New Gold - Magna Entertainment - Amerigo Resources - Atna Resources - Global Alumina - Constellation Copper - Velan - Seamark Asset Management - Breakwater Resouces - North American Palladium - Vasogen
CIBCs work shows the small-cap companies are being bought out at a far faster clip than the larger rivals
First Mr Sheep revisited: Mr sheep from the first contest has taken by far the biggest fall since the end of it and made me curious as to what the picks were so I looked them up and here they are along with the number of people who picked them: PDGE.ob (24), CHAR.ob (16), ASPN.ob (16), VPHM (15), EGY (14), EZEN.ob (11), NKBS (11)
I don't own any of them anymore but I have owned 4 of them in the past. 3 of them were oil stocks, CHAR, ASPN, and EGY. CHAR has since been gobbled up by the Russians, on the cheap. The board favorite at the time, PDGE, is in environmental clean-up. Remember that Katrina hit during the contest and there was a huge runup in OG prices and companies that worked in storm clean-up. Last year was a quiet year on the hurricane front so they have quieted down. VPHM is a drug company (that made some of us huge profits), EZEN and NKBS are in business services. EZEN has been hurt by cutbacks in government contracts as government spending stemming from 9-11 has since dropped. NKBS has been hit and miss since then, but mostly a miss. Not one metal stock in the list, how times have changed.
Nickel went up but copper, zinc, and lead inventories were down again at yesterday's close (from basemetals). Now when will zinc traders wake up and start buying with both fists?
Close +/-
Copper 138425 -1650
Aluminium 833825 -2600
Nickel 5388 +402
Zinc 79425 -425
Lead 48200 -425
Zinc LME warehouse stock breakdown...Look at all the warehouses with bare shelves. Only 9 of 27 warehouses have any inventory left at all. Overall zinc inventories dropped 1675 tons, breaking through the 80000 ton barrier to 79,850, a 14 year low. When is the price of zinc going to shoot up to allocate what is left? Should be soon, I would think.
These are all as of yesterday.
Zinc Warehouse Stocks 21 May 2007
Close In Out +/- On Warrant Cancelled
Antwerp 0 0 0 0 0 0
Avonmouth 0 0 0 0 0 0
Baltimore 0 0 0 0 0 0
Barcelona 0 0 0 0 0 0
Bilbao 600 0 0 0 600 0
Bremen 0 0 0 0 0 0
Chicago 0 0 0 0 0 0
Detroit 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dubai 8125 0 600 -600 6425 1700
Genoa 25 0 50 -50 0 25
Gothenburg 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hamburg 0 0 0 0 0 0
Helsingborg 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hull 0 0 0 0 0 0
Johor 6200 0 800 -800 5950 250
Leghorn 0 0 0 0 0 0
Liverpool 0 0 0 0 0 0
Long Beach 0 0 0 0 0 0
Los Angeles 0 0 0 0 0 0
New Orleans 42275 0 25 -25 40725 1550
Rotterdam 7725 0 0 0 7425 300
Singapore 12975 0 200 -200 11475 1500
St Louis 0 0 0 0 0 0
Trieste 125 0 0 0 0 125
Tyne & Wear 1800 0 0 0 1700 100
Vlissingen 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 79850 0 1675 -1675 74300 5550 510
cl, nelson and curlews....TDameritrade commish on CDN pinkies..I didn't mean to say that I saw an extra 1/2cent commish tacked on; what they did was add it to the price with the new platform. Here's an example of what happened on two trades last week. Let's say I see a canadian stock trading at 97c ask and I am willing to pay the ask so I go to XE.com to convert to US$. 97cCan=.8924cUSA and I have to place an order in full cents so I put it in at 90c US for the pink sheet equivalent. Before I would usually see it go through at .8924 or very close to it. Last week after the platform change, I would have seen that trade go through at about .8974
It looks to me that someone has tacked on an extra half cent for his trouble. I think I recall Bobwins saying that this was pretty typical, but I don't like paying it when I did not have to before. To be fair, with the old TD platform, I would occasionally see that old trade actually go through at 90c which is my limit but 80+% of the time it went through at the correct conversion rate.
TDAmeritrade, Curlews.. like you, I am a former TDWaterhouse customer. I do not like the newly merged platform either. Probably a part of it is that I am not used to it but one thing I have definitely noticed is that in buying pink sheet equivalents of Canadian issues. I always use limit orders, of course, but it appears that the broker is adding about 1/2cent share to my cost to do the trade. With the old platform I didn't see that extra fee tacked on (maybe becasue TDWaterhouse is a canadian based company??). Doesn't sound like alot but it adds up, especially with the penny mining stocks. 50,000 shares, for example adds $250 each way. Ouch!!!
As I recall, TDWaterhouse also did charge two commissions if a limit order was partially filled and the price was changed so I don't see that as a change. Scottrade has the same policy, charging another commish if a limit price on a partially filled order is changed.
cl001, re. chinese metal storage. Last week was a week long labour holiday in China, which likely caused distortions in those numbers. PS, I don't see today's LME metal storage #s, I believe they used to show up on metalbulletin?
And LBE is about the only green spot in my metals portfolio today. Let's see, the prices of zinc and copper are falling like they became poison, while zinc inventories have now dropped 24 out of 26 days in a row to a new low and copper inventories, while up today, are down 19 out of the last 21 days. The good news is I won't have a problem finding good buys for the new pick6.
XNN is intriguing to me as well. It could be a big winner but what bothers me is that there are no independent reviews of their new night vision product in other special interest magazines or newspapers that I can find. With the product now in production, it seems to me that the company would have provided these to at least a few people at popular magazines to try out and compare with other manufacturers equipment, at least if it works anywhere near as well as XNN claims it does.
Good article on zinc and why it's turn to shine has arrived (from greattrades.com)
Great Trades submits: In December, we responded to readers’ questions about why the consistent drop in LME Zinc inventories had paused.
Other than a one-day spike in June 2005, LME Zinc inventories had dropped nearly 90% in a very consistent pattern since April 2004, from 785,000 tonnes to a low of 84,825 tonnes, but that pattern appeared to have changed late last year.
From December through late March, a shallow uptrend developed, and media skeptics came out of the woodwork suggesting that the trend change in zinc LME inventories indicated a permanent shift in the supply/demand situation, as China became a “net exporter” of zinc. The truth was that a couple of short-term factors, delayed shipments from the world’s biggest zinc mine and a change in Chinese export tax law, had helped to create a short-term surge in refined zinc supply, causing a temporary pause in the downtrend.
Despite the media claims, China remained a huge net importer of zinc, as they imported more and more zinc in the form of zinc concentrate, which they then processed in their smelters to create refined zinc. Because they had dramatically increased their refining capacity via rampant smelter construction, China had decreased their refined zinc imports relative to their zinc concentrate imports, using their low-cost advantages to process the zinc raw materials from other countries to the extent that they were exporting more refined zinc than they imported. However, the huge consumption of zinc in China’s growing economy, far exceeding the capacity of their own mines, compelled them to remain huge net importers of zinc overall, importing enormous amounts of zinc concentrate from overseas mines. Conveniently, the media zinc skeptics never mentioned the fact that China was relying on other countries for much of the zinc concentrate they used to produce refined zinc, instead focusing only on the “net exporter” status for the refined zinc finished product.
We said in December that “We expect the zinc crisis to become very evident after the effects of the Red Dog shipment spike have dissipated by the end of Q1.” After the peak in LME Zinc inventories in late Q1, they have steadily declined to hit a new low, at 83,725 tonnes, below the December low of 84,825 tonnes, so we can see that the pause in the downtrend was only temporary. Since the current level represents only about 2 ½ days of inventory, there’s not a lot of room to move lower. There’s a “frictional level” of LME inventories required to maintain an orderly market. It will be interesting to see how the zinc price responds to lower levels of inventories, as at some point the price will have to move high enough to curtail the demand so that the LME inventories don’t get completely depleted.
In addition to the previously mentioned factors for the earlier surge in zinc supply, another factor may decrease future world zinc supply. China has taken actions to decrease their zinc production capacity, requiring new zinc mines to have at least an annual capacity of more than 30,000 tons and an operation life of 15 years, capping the country’s refined zinc production capacity, and reportedly removing the 5% tax rebate on exports of refined zinc. With the enforcement of these new regulations, China will likely need to rely even more on foreign sources of zinc concentrate, and other countries will need to step up their production of refined zinc to make up for China’s supply reduction.
Moving forward, we really like the fundamentals for the zinc market, as we explained in December:
After the short term surge in supply from these 2 temporary events is absorbed by the market, we expect zinc to remain very strong because of the dearth of sizable projects in the pipeline for the next few years combined with growing demand and depletion of reserves at existing mines. We believe the fears in the market that the recent short-term trend change in zinc LME inventories could indicate a permanent shift in the supply/demand situation are misguided, and we expect that to become apparent in coming months. If the downtrend resumes as we expect, we believe the only way the LME Zinc inventories will avoid complete depletion is with zinc prices increasing enough to curtail demand.
The timing for strength in zinc mining companies is excellent. A year ago, one of the sharpest and most respected institutional commentators, Don Coxe, explained on a conference call that “there are 3 major movements in this metals bull market, and we're nearing the end of the first one. The second one will be a slowdown, where I expect the prices of commodities to correct after the initial big runup. The third one will be a dramatic move that lasts at least 5-7 years.” He specified that “the next 12 months would be 'great fun' but a very different game, and would provide the ‘last great opportunity’ for the next 5-7 years. The next economic cycle after that will be a giant.”
Over the past year, we’ve seen the second movement play out, with sharp corrections in the prices of commodities. Most zinc junior miners remain well off their highs of a year ago, and are poised to bounce back during the strong third movement. In his latest conference call, Coxe reiterated that he feels “as strongly as ever that the best is yet to come.” He also emphasized that although “because of compliance problems and the kinds of clients that we serve, we have to comment on the big cap stocks, that more money is made in any boom like this by buying small caps,” meaning “you’re better off if you can find small cap mining companies who have got reserves in the ground than you are buying big caps – the leverage is terrific, and you can also assume that they’re going to get taken out, if the stock market obstinately refused to bid them high enough.”
After the recent rallies in uranium, nickel, molybdenum, and copper mining stocks, we believe that it is now the zinc miners’ turn to shine. With arguably the best supply/demand fundamentals for at least the next few years, zinc is the only base metal whose price is still down on the year. We believe that laggard status will soon change as the zinc crisis becomes more evident, drowning out the media skeptics’ misguided claims. Quality small cap zinc miners may be the next group to shine in this bull market.
LME zinc stocks have now dropped 22 out of the last 24 days and they are now below their lowest levels that were hit early last December. Zinc prices, on the other hand are nowhere near their highs of last December. LME copper inventories have also been steadily falling, they have declined 18 of the last 19 days.
Zinc and copper prices should be moving up today, but so far there is little movement.
AEY- Second great quarter and they did it without those legacy boxes being much of a factor. Company has indicated that they expect the sales of those boxes to increase in the current quarter (June07) as it is probably the last qrtr they can be purchased in the USA (intl sales will continue). The last time AEY earned 15c, the price hit a high of over $9 in early 06. Probably won't go that high this time but $6 sure seems reasonable especially with a good shot at even stronger earnings coming next Q as well.
cl001, re BN..I own all those you mentioned but BN is trading at less than 2x cash flow as well. Assuming 1.80 zinc less 53c cost=1.27 cash flow/lb. x 100 mil lbs= $127 mil.
Deduct 20% of that for BWR, leaving $100 mil cash flow.
320 mil shares x 60c=$192 mil Can mkt cap.= $173 mil US.
Ratio of cash flow to mkt cap is 1.73. Not too bad for a mine with a 9 year life and they also have 3 other properties in the same area that can be served by their soon operational mill. One of those is Canoe Lake which based on an older geological survey has reserves several times those of Caribou.
I agree that BWR is a safer investment and I also own much more BWR. But based on the numbers that I see, BN is selling at less than 50c compared to BWR and about 25c compared to HBM. Well worth a look, IMO.
cl001, BN has strong exposure to zinc. If you haven't seen it, take a look the Octagon analyst report from the link below. On page 10, a graph shows the amount of zinc production per $1000 of market cap for zinc producers including BWR, HBM and LUN. BN leads the pack by a wide margin (BWR is #2).
Another similiar player is ADA (which I also own and like). Both ADA and BN bought former producing mines bought on the cheap when metal prices were very low (ADA from HBM and BN from BWR). Both ADA and BN have similar market caps yet BN expects to produce 105 mil lbs of zinc its first full year of production vs 45 mil lbs for ADA.
BWR does have the option of getting 20% of BN's production from Caribou rather than owning 41 million shares (indirectly through a conv debenture). If that happens, the diluted share count total will drop by 41 mil or 11% which partially compensates for the loss.
http://www.bluenotemining.ca/content.php?item=financials_analysts
Blue Note (BNMFF.PK)
>This Company has refurbished an old mine they bought from Breakwater Resources. They are anticipating production start up this quarter with a ramp up to a staggering 100 million pounds of Zinc and of 40 million pounds Lead per year. Earnings and cash flow should be huge relative to the capitalization of the company.<
I think Blue Note (BN.v) is an excellent buy here. O/s=360 mil at 57c/share=200 mil mkt cap. they bought Breakwater's Caribou zinc mine and mill in Nova Scotia which was shut down during low zinc prices. BWR had issues with the recovery rate due to fine material but BN has updated it with new technology and Isamills to solve that problem. They expect to produce 100 mil lbs of zinc annually at a cost of 53c/pound (probably less now with high prices for byproducts). At that rate they will cashflow $120 mil/year. The mine has an estimated 9 year life plus they own 3 other properties in the same area with excellent prospects. The mine is starting up now and it and the mill will be fully operational by the end of this quarter.
Good luck Wade with HSOA although I wouldn't be surprised to see somebody like stocklemon or Greenburg return and end the rally with a negative article if it does take off.
HSOA- eps beat estimates by a penny but here are two red flags that I see:
earnings were $5.7 mil but cash flow was negative $2.8 mil. Revenues were higher than the previous qrtr but the difference between earnings and cash flow was larger ($5 mil vs -$8.5 mil)...a big red flag.
87% of stockholder equity consists of goodwill and intangibles. Did they overpay for acquisitions? This is hardly a high-tech business. Why would they pay so much to acquire construction related businesses?
I have not done an indepth analysis because I don't trust the CEO but if the SP surges, I would think about taking profits here, fwiw.
I'm holding onto my HBM. BWR is soaring to new highs in spite of a rather disappointing Q1 earnings report last friday-earned 4c, although sales were only 2/3rds of production so in reality they did better. Zinc inventory drawdowns are mounting as the seasonal Red Dog material is apparently gone and the supply from the chinese created when the govt removed the penalties for overseas sales has dried up as well.
Huge drop in reported zinc LME inventories today. LME Zinc inventories have now dropped 8 days in a row from 97,900 tons to 86,875 tons, a decline of over 11%. Inventories increased by a mere 25 tons on 4/25, and inventories had also declined 11 days in a row before that.
Copper inventories show a strong declining trend as well. They have now dropped 15 days in a row from 174,600 to 145,700 tons, a decline of 16.5%.
Don't throw away those pennies, they are worth more everyday.
:<)
I didn't think it was all that great of drilling results. All are very deep and the longest is 8 meters, still the market certainly seems to like it. I'm wondering how deep mines go anyway for base metals? Those test results start at 800 + meters or roughly 1/2 mile deep?
TCHC, maybe a third reason their earnings were a dud is that the CEO is spending too much time at poker tournaments. As I recall he did his last CC from a poker tournament.
With a day like this one, it must be time to watch Bobwin's monkey do his dance......
http://www.rallymonkey.com/video/kenindex.swf
I hope no one is superstitious but that makes 13 straight days that copper LME inventories have declined. Incredible....time to wake up little Quadra.
I expected another offer for LIM to come earlier and finally threw in the towel last week after all the financials were out on it. Those Russians did it to me again. Now I wonder if RNO will see another offer...the SP says it will. Still...woo..hoo, it is a fun ride with the Nickel juniors today.
Digitech, I also chatted with the IR lady last at BWR last week about the friday PM news release. She said that she and the CEO would be at a conference in Montreal today and friday was the first day they would be back and could get the board together. I have been wondering since though about whether a board meeting is required before a quarterly news report is released? It doesn't seem like it would be and I wonder if maybe there is some other significant news to report as well. If so, based on the stock action it should be good news.
Does anyone know if public companies need to have a board meeting before they can release quarterly results?
Re: Canroys....Ones I like include AAV and PWI. Both have long life reserves and are selling below NAV. I was looking at buying more with the recent upswing in energy prices until I saw the proposed new tax that Kerry introduced in the Senate (S 1006 for anyone who would like to look it up). A representative from Kerry's state of Taxachusetts also introduced a bill like it in the house. I doubt it will pass while Bush is president but anything is fair game after that.
Interesting that it is the finance minister from the ruling conservative party that proposed the 31.5% tax in Canada. It caused a huge selloff of Canroys when it was announced at the end of last October. That was after the prime minister promised that he would not change the tax rules for trusts before he was elected. The liberals are suggesting a 10% tax as a compromise but we shall see. As a sidenote, a buyout of a beaten down OG trust (Thunder-THY.un) was announced just last week at $4/unit which is a small fraction of what it had been selling for a year ago. The buyer is a Canadian government pension fund and they sure won't be paying any taxes regardless of how the tax situation plays out. Stockholders (actually unitholders) are hopping mad at both the finance minister and management there who sold them out on the cheap.
Canada withholds 15% of the dividends on canadian trust distributions paid to US holders. Those are lost to USA stockholders if held in an IRA account but I believe they can be recouped if they are held in a taxable account by filing Form 1116 (foreign tax credit) with the IRS.
I have been looking at Canadian OG trusts which were trashed when the Canadian finance minister proposed last October that they be taxed at 31.2%. Existing trusts would not be affected until 2011. Huge uproar in Canada over this and I would not be surprised to see it dropped or at least reduced. But now, Sen John Kerry has filed a bill in the Senate (a companion bill has also been filed in the House) which would tax distributions to US stockholders from foreign trusts at 35%. Grrrrr....