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Wednesday June ma Finance company set to turn private again Your Business Diane Thomson Ntwt Strvic Allan Silber and his partners at Counsel Corp are exasperated with Their shareholders So the in financial service com that has expanded with such fanfare over the past three years is about to become private again At the company annual meeting this week Mr ad monished shareholders for their shortsightedness and offered to buy back their stock for a share a premium over the average tr ding price of the previous month Counsels tock pme seem depend on its quarterly financial results Mr Silber old shareholders This emphasis on term makes it hard to pursue sound long term strategies he said If the market has failed to ap preciate Counsel worth the com insiders have not If holders a cept the of Mr Silber will own 55 per cent of Counsel Albert 35 per cent and Edward Sonshlne Counsel executive vice president per cent Mr Rrichm son Philip sits on Counsel board The savvy Reichmanns would not raise their stake in Counsel if they did not see value says Stephen Weintraub Counsels vice president of finance Mr has done very well with his investment in the company Mr Weintraub says Counsel insiders appreciate what is here Minority shareholders not What s the purpose of man taining a public company if stock is trading below book value Before the market crash Counsel was trading at more than For most of the past two years though it has languished in the or range MISSED TARGET At least one of Mr s pro blems was of his own making He has a habit of setting objectives at year en I for he following year Las year Counsel fell short of its profit target and the same seems likely to happen for lB The GEORGETOWN SPA FITNESS CENTRE EXCLUSIVELY YOURS 8771924 profit target was million Counsel earned 10 million This year s target is million Sha eholders are expected to decide on the offer some time in September Going private would Improve the company ability to finance long term expansion Mr says As a private company you can do things you could not as a public company TRADING REVIEWED From the looks of it the headache of running a publicly traded company could get worse for Mr Silber before it gets better Counsel s stock price has shot up in the past couple of weeks from on May to just before the buy back was announced this week The Toronto Stock Ex change is reviewing the trading to see if anything is amiss Meanwhile some analysts are grumbling that Mr Silber offer is not generous enough Left to its own Counsel stock Id have soared to or in a couple of years says Harold of Nesbitt Thomson Mr Silber well might wonder what has been tak ingitsolong Counsel insiders have tried in the past to give shareholders a better deal A complicated plan to reorganize the company fell through last year because govern ment regulators found it too con fusing In the minds of some shareholders Counsels threeyear stint as a publicly traded company was too brief If in future Mr Silber decides to go public again chances are hell have no trouble persuading shareholders to climb onboard STORE HOURS 9 30 a 6 except Thursday Friday 30 a City Styles CfoseToHotnat 211Guelph Street Georgetown 8777361 CENTRE Employers are the subject of Hire a Student Week Employers are the focus of this years Hire a Student week in Halton Hills The Georgetown office- of the Canada Student Employment Cen is looking for more jobs for the registered students who want work this summer Hire a Student week runs from June to June Right now were concentrating on employers trying to solicit new jobs said Jennifer Lusby at the centre Since we ve got so many students what we re trying to do is get jobs for them added centre worker Patricia D The centre has advertised for students and employers on Halton Cable and through a banner placed in on Highway There are buttons worn by local bank employees and phlets distributed by local gas sta This yea s popular jobs include outdoor employment and clerical or secretarial jobs Other posf tions like waiting tables or manual labor are also popular for students Job salaries range from minimum wageto8anhour This years students looking for jobs include a younger group aged 14 to 16 These are the most en thusiastic applicants says Ms DSouza g 5 I Simon CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT J She said these students are real ly ho and willing to do odd jobs including baby silting There is also a government pro gram called Summer Employment Experience Development SEED which pays part of the students wage if the job is considered career training The most unusual job Ms and Ms Lusby have posted at the centre this year is for a funeral assistant They say they have received a few inquiries about the position which involves typing grasscutting along with funeral duties New Skills Students Learn new skills and gam valuable work experience through volunteering For exam pie you could be a worker in a summer camp setting for behaviorally disturbed children Or work as a receptionisttypist for a local agency Call the Volunteer Centre at 6773219 and let us help you find a volunteer opportunity which best suits your future goals and aspirations Both Ms Souza and Ms are students themselves and they can understand the importance of a summer job The experience and the salary can be valuable to students Ms Lusby is a physical education student at the University of Western Ontario She lives in Georgetown Ms is al University of Toronto studying political science and history She hails from Brampton Although there have threats of losing the Guelph Streel student centre in the lagan Escarpment building officials a the Toronto office say there been no plans to close the office which services all of Halton Hills OFFICE MAJMC FOR ALL YOUR OFFICE I STATIONERY NEEDS p Inc a Phone 416 8770109 132 Mam Street Soulh Georgetown Ontario STEVEN C FOSTER BALLB BARRISTER SOLICITOR 37 MAIN ST SOUTH GEORGETOWN ONT L7G 3G2 41 68734961 fax 41 68734962 Streel Georgetown Ontario 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