Laurentian Bank of Canada LAUCF

Took the tax loss

[Northforce13]

Sold most of my shares and took the tax loss, big ouch.  What a disaster upon disaster this has been.

I moved into BFH, Bread Financial, long term hold, unlike LB which was a very rare hit or miss with the acquisition + potential long term hold if the acquisition didn't go through.  

I might have hung onto LB and just sat around, but the recent 5 day shut down, plus CEO/BOD changes got me uncomfortable.  Plus on the other side of the equation, BFH, which I like a lot, has been declining a lot,  even though its business is going to be ok, so I decided to put my money there instead.  

I still hold a good chunk of LB, so I'll be sticking around for a long time and see how this whole story plays out.

The next quarters could be very poor, as they get hit for the CEO ridiculous pay bonus for being incompetent to the point of requiring termination, plus millions in costs for hiring advisors to fend off the companies bidding on the bank to buy it out.  Then there will be the damage coming from a lot of clients abandoning "Loser Bank" after being shut off from their accounts for 5 days.  In about 3 quarters all that should be done with more or less, and we'll have a clearer picture of how things can be expected to go.

A positive is that we won't have to grit our teeth when reading the absolutely nonsensical word salad of a mission statement the last CEO had for the bank.  

Just your friendly cynical investor here :-)

GLTA

[DeanEdmonton]

Norht - sorry for your loss. Even with guys I disagree with, I always hate to see retail investors lose money, especially large amounts of it. I REALLY hope you get it all back plus on the stocks you rolled the funds into. All the best.

[DeanEdmonton]

Remember, this was only Oct 2023. What has changed at LB to make them a good investment.

[Northforce13]

Nothing has changed, as you  stipulate.  I think I'm hoping to see something change, because it would not require much for this to be a good investment at this price.  I still debate wading back in, on the expectation that at some point in the future something might change for the better, or a buyer materialize.  

[rad10]

Its all about the price, and the price to book.  Not much has to go right for this to work out very well indeed.

[rad10]

Nothing has changed? ..... CEO? Board Chair and a couple of Directors? 6.5 million dollars restructuring Q1 2024 for 8million in projected annual recurring savings? Rania Llewelyn was out of her depth. Not much has to go right at this price, and with new leadership they could do well. Would I pay the same price to book as one of the quality Canadian banks - heck no! 43% price to book on the