By James Langton

(November 20 – 18:00 ET) – Assante Corp. held a “do-over” of its recent analyst conference call today after an odd session last week produced no questions.

Assante attributed last week’s question-free session to a technical glitch. It restaged the call, skipping the formal presentation and going straight to the Q&A.

Assante founder and chief executive Marty Weinberg appeared with chief financial officer, Denis Taillieu, but this time the pair took questions from some name analysts: Tom Jarmai of RBC Dominion Securities; Darren Parent of CIBC World Markets; Merrill Lynch Canada’s Cameron Webster, and Wellington West Capital’s Michael Swistun.

Assante explained that cash flow from the advisory business is lagging the strong growth on the assets side because the firm is making infrastructure investments and incurring an additional uptick in its basic operating expenses related to its integration. It says these expenses aren’t easily captured, and so aren’t covered by the large restructuring charge it took earlier in the year. The company expects this to continue into the next quarter, insisting that these expenses will be wrung out in the first quarter of 2001.

The firm took the opportunity to insist that the Canadian financial advisory side of its business alone is worth in excess of $11 a share based on the price of current M&A transactions taking place. None of the analysts followed that assertion to wonder why the stock traded between $8.90 and $3.50 over the past 52 weeks, and has never seen $11 in the public market.

The firm argued that the fallout from fund industry consolidation has enabled it to pick up some high quality talent, namely Nick Mancini, president and CEO of Assante Advisory Services, who came out of the AIM-Trimark merger. Weinberg says that Mancini is, “making a significant difference out in the field”.

Assante also cast some light into its online strategy, noting that it doesn’t intend to go directly online, but will be pursuing a strategy that both gives tools to advisors and its wealth management group to improve service to clients.