Bobwins- Just talked with AGM
Steve Mullery is the guy I talked with, and I asked him about the reasons for so much preferred issued vs selling off their investment portfolio to fund their growth. Well the reason they didn't sell off any of their investment portfolio is they feel they'de get to much less than fair value at this point and also didn't want to show any realized investment losses at this time. Also he said they did need the funding to make sure they were within legal equity ratios but not neccessarily for writeoffs, but because of the mark to market derrivative situation getting worse in the Dec qtr. I don't understand how that works though and it sounds complicated.
Lastly after asking he told me the company is doing well from core operations and expects to use the funds recieved to grow the business further in 09. He also said they hope to call in the preferred next year if at all possible. I think the earliest date for that is Sept 09. All in all I got the feeling that although things could remain chalenging for a qtr or two, that earnings from core operations will continue to be good and maybe even improve, and that things overall will start looking a lot better by the Mar or June qtr. Wade
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