RE: RE: RE: MFC Dividend Increase
I guess $200m cannot give you much of an acquisition.
MFC said they wanted to reduce their debt ratio to 25% and as usual they will want to speed up the process.
A better debt to equity ratio is good for the Lenders and Rating Agencies and also in this case an improvement
to their MCCSR.
The cutting of the dividend was very stupid, especially since the markets doubled since, and this management
is trying all how, to justify their stupidity.
look at Scotia Bank making only 7 cents more YOY and giving 3 cents of that as a dividend increase.
MFC made 49 cents more YOY and cannot return a 2 cents of what they took away.
His reason for not giving a dividend increase (actually returning the dividend) was that he has to be sure
what rules the Regulators will implement and it might take up to three years to know.
Is he for real ?..... he has the highest MCCSR and so scared to risk returning 2 cents to shareholders.
even though he said an increase will be immaterial to the MCCSR.
Those other Insurers with way lower MCCSR don't seemed so worry about the Regulators.
Currently his MCCSR is over 250 and Mr Guloien is probably thinking that the Regulators might raise
the MCCSR requirement to 250, then MFC alone will survive.
One thing for sure, this CEO is not shareholder friendly, except maybe for a few big Institutional Investors.