DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS ABOUT COMINAR
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BY RENÉ VÉZINA, JOURNALIST SPECIALIZING IN ECONOMICS
On September 15 the real estate investment trust Cominar announced the launch of a "strategic review process" in order to evaluate its options, but the very next day the media were already mentioning the possibility of the firm being put up for sale.
"One should not jump to conclusions so quickly," Cominar’s president and chief operating officer Sylvain Cossette said when asked about it. "We’ve just started discussions about what action to take. Please give us time to let that happen!" FACING REALITY Like all real estate investment trusts in Canada, Cominar has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Over a 12-month period the S&P/TSX capped real estate index (a sub-index of the Toronto Stock Exchange Income Trust
Index) registered a decline of nearly 24%. Cominar is one of the 21 firms considered in the index, along with Riocan, Canadian Apartment Properties and others. They have all suffered from the crisis to varying degrees. The Cominar share price dropped from $13 to $7.30 as of September 18. Sylvain Cossette believes that the lower price does not reflect reality. "There is a gap between the stock price and the intrinsic value of the company, and we must work to reduce it," he noted. "It’s one of the two avenues we’re pursuing,
COMINAR
IMMOBILIER COMMERCIAL : : OCTOBRE – NOVEMBRE 2020
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