Brookfield Office Properties Inc T.BPO.PR.C

Anyone CONFUSED about the ex-dividend date?

[pierrelebel]

We all know by now that BPO screwed up by not informing the TSX, the financial press and shareholders in a timely fashion of the dividend payable on September 27th.

Take a look at the TSX information = KEY Data page.

They show a RECORD DATE of September 13th.

Why the TSX also shows an ex-dividend date of September 16th makes no sense as both record and ex-dividend dates should be the same.

Only folks who have actually traded BPO shares on Friday the 13th will eventually know how the transfer agents and financial institutions handle the situation.

Possibly some folks will get a dividend they did not expect while other folks will not get the dividend they expect.

Either way the blame belongs to Brookfield organization, its management and staff. They should all know better.

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Date of Record

The date of record, or record date, is the date by which you must be in the company's records as a current shareholder. Every shareholder on the books on the record date will receive the dividend. If you're not in the company's records, you won't receive the dividend.

In today's market, settlement of stocks is a T + 1 process. This means that a transaction is entered into the company's record books one business day after the trade.

To ensure that you are in a company's record books as a shareholder, you need to buy the stock before the date of record, and one day before the ex-dividend date.