Brookfield Office Properties Inc T.BPO.PR.C

Short Interest In Light of Bruce Flatt's comments yesterday.

[Carena]

Good morning,

I find it interesting that this BPO board lit up yesterday (and every 2 weeks for that matter) to discuss short interest and why it is up or down (and for good reason!), and at the same time I am reading a Globe and Mail article titled...

"Brookfield CEO says institutional investors have less interest in ‘distractions’ of public markets"

and Bruce Flatt is quoted in the article as saying....

 “Public markets is just the ownership of a fractionalization of a business, but most people get confused because they think it is a casino.”

Firstly, there is no question that Bruce Flatt saying "MOST PEOPLE", he is talking about us small investors on this BPO board and it is actually highly insulting to all investors.  

My Conclusions:

(i) This is the precise reason why I have said previously I have less conviction in Brookfield going forward. Brookfield gorged on the public capital markets for 20 years when interest rates were near zero and now that things are tougher, Bruce is calling everyone idiots.  Very bad look, in my opinion.

(ii) I have a friend who always reminds me that the market capitalization of Brookfield Corporation is somewhere between Ross Stores and TJX Companies in the S&P 500.  His point is Brookfield is a small fish in the S&P 500 and we Canadians pay way too much to what he has to say.

(iii) Make no mistake, Bruce Flatt is under pressure these days to perform and the shine is coming off his reputation.    The facts are, he gorged on "Permanent Capital" and all he has to do, for example, is to redeem our BPO prefs at $25 per share and us "idiots" will move on...right?  The ceasing of NCIB activity in the BPO prefs  looks ridiculous in light of his comments yesterday. 

(iv) I have benefitted from the privatization of BOX.UN, BPO, RSE, GGP, BRP and a bunch of other shareholder friendly actions by Bruce Flatt and Brookfield but as I have said previously, Brookfield is a "Show Me" story now.

I continue to watch Brookfield very closely.

Have a great day,
Carena