Medical Facilities, whose stock climbed as much as eight per cent by midmorning, said the dramatic shift in corporate strategy followed “constructive discussions” with shareholders, notably Montreal’s Converium Capital Inc.
“[This] clearly ends the experiment to allocate income to growth by acquisition instead of returning income to shareholders, and we expect a material increase of the dividend once the strategic change is implemented,” wrote iA Capital analyst Paul Stewardson in an email to BNN Bloomberg. Ever since, “there have been strong opinions from active shareholders on this strategic change,” said Stewardson, who described previous acquisitions as bearing “mixed results.”
Less is more. Some other companies could learn this same lesson.