Topic: How To Invest

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, June 30, 2017

Article Excerpt

DREAM OFFICE REIT, $19.55, symbol D.UN on Toronto, launched a three-year strategic plan early last year to push up its unit price. That strategy included selling non-essential properties worth $3.0 billion in order to realize their full market value. Dream Office has now sold $3.2 billion in properties. That completes its sale program, and leaves it with $2.9 billion in properties (comprised of 49 properties, down from 166 about 18 months ago). Dream Office views $2.4 billion of that total as “core” assets, of which $1.5 billion are in downtown Toronto, $200 million are in Mississauga and North York, $300 million are in Calgary, and $350 million are in Montreal and Ottawa. Overall, the REIT will use most of the proceeds from its property sales to pay down its high-interest debt. It also plans to buy back 24.4 million of its units for $440.0 million in a “Dutch auction”. Under the Dutch auction buyback plan, shareholders who want to sell their Dream Office…