PrefBlog

It’s time to complain about Xstrata’s investor relations again!

I’ve previously complained, but I’ve tried again. The following has been sent to Hanré Rossouw of Xstrata’s Investor Relations Department:

Dear Mr. Rossouw,

I am unable to find information regarding the current dividend for Xstrata Cda Ser 3 Pr, trading as FAL.PR.B on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

What is the record and pay date for this dividend?

Is this information somewhere on the xstrata.com website that I’ve missed? If not, are there plans to communicate this information freely to investors in the future?

Sincerely,
…

For the record, the ex-Date is 5/13, record 5/15, pay 6/2, amount $0.2863.

Update 2008-5-8: I have received a reply from Mr. Rossouw:

We “freely communicate” relevant information on the pref shares on the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com)

Attached is the relevant announcement published on 14 March 2008 that details the record and payment dates for the preferred shares.

Hah! Puts me in my place, doesn’t it, especially the quotation of “freely communicate”! He kindly attached a PDF, which I have uploaded.

I have replied:

Thank you for the information; it is most unusual for these public announcements to be performed solely through SEDAR and I neglected to check that source.

Are there any plans to post information of this nature on your website in future, or to disseminate such press releases through agencies that would be picked up by the TSX website (CNX MarketLink & Globeinvestor; see the TSX quotation page http://www.tsx.com/HttpController?GetPage=QuotesLookupPage&DetailedView=DetailedPrices
&Market=T&ref=quickquote&Language=en
&QuoteSymbol_1=fal.pr.b )?

I have checked SEDAR and there it is … Xstrata, Press Release, English, March 14.

Update #2, 2008-5-8: He has very kindly responded:

Thanks for the feedback – it might be a good idea to at least put the key preferred share data and the website and point to the SEDAR website for all relevant documents.

Good enough for me! We shall see what happens.

Why is it that Bombardier updates its shareholder information dividend pages only after pay-date, instead of immediately after declaration date, the way a company might if, you know, it thought about what it was doing?

Memo to the Bombardier Board and Webmaster: when redesigning your Investor Relations section, please remember that while past dividend dates are of great interest to historians, your actual investors will be more interested in the current dividend and the specifics of its ex-date, record-date, pay-date and amount.

Anyway … the current BBD.PR.C / BBD.PR.D dividend has a record date of 10/19 and a pay-date of 10/31. You heard it here first.

Today’s brickbat is hurled at YPG Holdings.

Looking for the dividends dates via the “News” link on the TSX‘s quote page doesn’t bring up any news at all.

Moving to the TSX Company page and thence to the company website, we find … nothing. Not very impressive investor relations.

Anyway, the ex-date was 9/10, record 9/12, pay 9/26.

On July 30, George Weston announced:

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT a quarterly dividend on George Weston Limited Common Shares, Preferred Shares, Series I, Preferred Shares, Series II, Preferred Shares, Series III, Preferred Shares, Series IV and Preferred Shares, Series V is payable as follows:
…
Preferred Shares, Series II    –  $0.321875 per share payable October 1, 2007, to shareholders of record September 15, 2007;

Will somebody please buy a calendar and send it to the George Weston board? September 15 is a Saturday.

In such cases, the way to think about the problem for purposes of calculating the ex-Dividend Date is to say … OK. It’s calculated as of 5pm on Saturday. The transfer agent is closed, so there won’t have been any changes to the books between 5pm Friday and 5pm Saturday. Therefore the real record date is Friday September 14; therefore the ex-Date is September 12.

I can understand that, due to sloppiness in preparation of the prospectus, the pay-date must be declared as the first of the month, even when that’s not a business day. But record dates are not even mentioned in the prospectus; there would appear to be no reason not to say the 14th when you mean the 14th … and this would make life a lot simpler, especially for retail.

Update: This goes for you, too, Brookfield!

BMT.PR.A last paid a dividend on May 4, with a record date of April 25.

Dividends for the current quarter have not yet been declared (according to the Toronto Stock Exchange) – I guess at Scotia Capital, summer vacations are more important. Or something.

The current dividend has been input to HIMIPref™ with the estimated dates 7/23, 7/25, 8/4.

Update, 2007-07-18: BMONT has announced:

The Board of Directors of BMONT Split Corp. (the “Company”) has declared today dividends of $0.3089 per Preferred Share and $0.1350 per Capital Share, payable on August 03, 2007 to holders of record at the close of business on August 02, 2007.

HIMIPref™ has been updated to reflect the correct dates.

Thanks a lot, guys! The last record date for this issue was April 16, but this quarter’s dividend hasn’t even been declared yet, according to TSX data.

July record dates for this company have been: 2003-7-31, 2004-7-29, 2005-7-15, 2006-7-28. I guess someone at Scotia is in the habit of a regular summer vacation!

Dates for the coming dividend have been estimated as 7/27, 7/31, 8/2

It seems the folks at Canadian Utilities are so excited about the recent new issue and upcoming redemption that they have forgotten that they have other outstanding issues!

There is no data available from the company or the TSX regarding the dividends payable June 1. I have estimated the ex-date to be 5/8, record 5/10.