Further ReflectionThe IR guy and I have had some much better exchanges, since my initial contact. I guess he got defensive when I said CWB has been the worst performing Canadian bank. He has subsequently tried to assure me that management had considered a rights issue for all shareholders, but elected to choose the placements that were announced.
I believe that a factor in the poor market performance of CWB can probably be traced to short selling. In October of last year the OSC placed a restriction on short selling of the largest financial institutions listed on the TSX. As of Jan 15 of this year the number of shares shorted of CWB has doubled (1,152,000 shares) from the Fall numbers. This suggests to me that the short sellers moved their activity "down market" to companies like WCB that weren't on the restricted list. Also year end tax loss selling would have helped these short sellers.
The pref share issuance also had $14 warrants attached to it.I believe that it was necessary to add this "sweetner" because the paper of WCB is unrated. I believe that WCB would qualify for an investment grade rating (warning...my opinion). however, for reasons known only to management, they had elected not to engage a rating agency, such as DBRS,S&P,CBRS and etc. Lack of a rating probably hurt me, since my financial institution elected not to sell any of the prefs as a new issue, and therefore I couldn't buy it if any were available.
I think management will be happy if the $14 warrants are exercised. I am less thrilled, since I've usually observed that sharp management issues equity at higher share prices, rather than toward the lower end of the range.