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CANCDNon Oct 31, 2020 6:26pm
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Post# 31819203
RE:Ed Sonshine on Riocan's Dividend
RE:Ed Sonshine on Riocan's Dividendhroark7 wrote: A reminder on how seriously Ed Sonshine is about Riocan's dividend
FP: Did you ever really think about cutting RioCan’s distribution? There was a period when people on Bay St. said you were paying out more than you were pulling in and it was not sustainable.
Sonshine: They were right, we were over-distributing. Did I think about cutting it? Of course. Everybody was telling me to cut it including some members of my own board. It got brought into focus by the financial crisis. In 2009 I think we only earned $1.22 in funds from operations and we distributed $1.38. Take into account capital expenditures, the shortfall was more dramatic. I made a deal with the board because I knew a lot of shareholders relied on distributions. If it didn’t turn around in two years, we would look at it again. It would have been easy to cut the distribution or just give it to people in stock. I just felt a lot of people were relying on it. I felt we have this covenant with those people. We didn’t increase it for four years. Before that we had increased every year from the year we started, sometimes twice a year.
Source: https://financialpost.com/financial-post-magazine/ceo-of-the-year-ed-sonshine-riocan
and it's not nearly as bad as financial crisis now as payout ratio is only 84% and Sonshine is now (essentially always has been) the chairman of the board.