RE: RE: Scotia sees Q4 conversion..During the teleconference, Kenny Gibson seemed to make it perfectly clear that he wanted to explore 3 alternative structures for the REIT as suggested by their legal department. He was not particularly anxious to see the REIT convert to a corporation by the tone and overall answers to the SIFT rule changes, although he may end up doing so.
I was surprised to hear that the market did not lend itself to many acquisition opportunities within the hotel sector according to Gibson even though I have a sheet listing over a dozen trades over the past short term with several opportunities still available. Its author says that the acquisition market was never better since the Recession hit and it was going to get better. Investing in their own assets may, however, be a good strategy. I noticed that most of the selling of Innvest Units, over the past month or so, has come from U.S. investors.
I found this conference to lack substance and the analysts seemed to have little to offer, for some reason. Even Gibson had no real summation at the end of the teleconference itself. My feeling is that Innvest will try to retain its current structure in one form or another before it turns to corporate conversion.