Kekst and Company is advising Highfields Capital Management, which wants Canada's doughnut/coffee king Tim Hortons Inc., to reconsider its costly expansion in the U.S. market that Highland believes is saturated with Dunkin' Doughnuts and Starbucks outlets.

The owner of four percent of THI urges the company to adopt a "capital light approach" to expansion (e.g., franchising, master licensing), a strategy that it has employed in the Middle East.

Highfields outlined its position to THM management during a meeting on March 21 and in a follow-up letter.

It went public May I after details of it conversations were "leaked to a media outlet by the company or one of its advisors," according to a May 1 statement.

THI's stock is trading at $57.27, off its $57.91 52-week high. Its low is $45.11.

Kekst managing directors Molly Morse and Andrea Calise are working the Highfields business.