PrefBlog

Better late than never! The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has announced (2009-5-29):

amendments to its Shareholder Investment Plan. Under the Plan, shareholders resident in Canada or the United States may elect to have dividends reinvested in
additional common shares of CIBC.

CIBC has decided to issue shares from treasury at a 3% discount from the Average Market Price (as defined in the Plan) until such time as CIBC elects otherwise. The discount applies to the distribution of common shares under the “Dividend Reinvestment Option” or “Stock Dividend Option” portions of the
Plan. The discount will not apply to shares purchased under the “Share Purchase Option” of the Plan.

Under the Plan, CIBC determines whether the additional common shares are purchased on the secondary market or are newly-issued by CIBC. Previously, shares were purchased on the secondary market with no discount from the Average Market Price.

In addition, under the amended Plan CIBC may designate certain series of CIBC preferred shares as eligible to participate in the Plan. Holders of eligible preferred shares may elect to have dividends on those preferred shares reinvested in common shares of CIBC. CIBC has designated each series of currently authorized preferred shares as eligible to participate in the Plan.

These changes will be effective starting with the dividend payable on July 28, 2009 to common and preferred shareholders of record on June 29, 2009.

Ongoing participants in the Plan will automatically have the discount applied to the reinvestment of their dividends on the July 28, 2009 payment date.

The letter to plan participants states:

The 3% discount will continue until further notice. CIBC reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to amend or cancel the discount or the Plan at any time, to determine whether common shares purchased under the Plan will be purchased on the secondary market or issued from treasury and to determine which series of CIBC preferred shares, if any, are eligible to participate in the Plan.

There does not appear to be a convenient way in which the current status of the DRIP can be checked on-line. Those interested in participating will have to check the Financial News Releases regularly, or contact Investor Relations.

The following CM preferred share issues are outstanding: CM.PR.P, CM.PR.R, CM.PR.A, CM.PR.D, CM.PR.E, CM.PR.G, CM.PR.H, CM.PR.I, CM.PR.J, CM.PR.K, CM.PR.L, CM.PR.M. All are tracked by HIMIPref™. There is also the ridiculous Series 28, which is not listed and therefore has no symbol.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 1:10 am and is filed under DRIPs, Issue Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.