Canada: three oligopolies in a trenchcoat.
Bank service charges and overdraft fees can infuriate consumers, and more choices could lower their temperature.
From the perspective of investors, though, Canada’s cozy network of oligopolies – in which a few players dominate one sector – can look very different. Slim competition can keep upstarts out and profits in, driving strong shareholder returns and attractive dividends over the long term.
“We have a handful of oligopolies that are able to fend off new entrants (whether regional or foreign) without needing to destroy profits for an extended period of time, or where we need a government financed solution,” Ian de Verteuil, head of portfolio strategy at CIBC Capital Markets, said in an e-mail.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Consumers like to complain about Canada’s biggest telecom players, banks, railways and grocers, and how limited choice in this country is keeping prices higher than in much of the rest of the world.
The deal created a single line through Canada, the United States and Mexico, which promises to deliver double-digit profit growth from 2024 through 2028, with help from cost savings and share buybacks.
Canadian telecom stocks have been struggling over the past two years as rising interest rates weigh on the appeal of dividends, the established players plough big bucks into upgrading their fibre networks and Ottawa takes on the country’s high cellphone charges with tough talk.
After the telecom reported its fourth quarter financial results, Cory O’Krainetz, an analyst at Vancouver-based investment manager Odlum Brown, said that costs associated with network upgrades and interest expenses weighed on profits.
Loblaw also delivers efficiencies of scale, generates valuable data on the spending habits of members in its PC Optimum rewards program and has a lock on some of the best locations for its 2,400 stores nationwide.
The solution, according to the Competition Bureau, is to encourage online competitors, support independent grocers, open doors to international companies and ease property controls that can shut out new entrants.
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