Canadian Made
Toyota Canada has reported a nearly two percent jump in November sales over 2019—an all-time monthly record.
Last month, the Japanese brand saw 19,089 new vehicles hit Canada’s roads—2,785 of which were either hybrids or fully electric.
While the brands sales numbers are typically mirrored by Honda’s, the other OEM actually saw a slight dip in its November sales numbers.
As the largest manufacturer of cars within Canada, Toyota may be attracting a sort of loyalist sales boom. A third of the vehicles sold in November were manufactured nationally. Among them, RAV4 models were particularly warmly embraced by Canada’s cold consumers.
They saw a 19 percent increase in sales over the previous November’s record.
Uni-Salvation?
An equity management firm has increased its interest in Uni-Select by several tens-of-millions of dollars.
According to a press release, Birch Hill Equity Partners Management announced it has acquired $75 million aggregate principal amount of 6 percent convertible senior subordinated unsecured debentures pursuant to a subscription agreement dated December 18, 2019.
Readers confused by the idea of convertible debentures could think of them a bit like high-yield bonds. After seven years, the investments can be turned into common shares bought from the company at $13.57.
The Convertible Debentures are convertible into common shares of Uni-Select (the “Common Shares”) at a conversion price of CDN$13.57 per Common Share, representing a conversion rate of Common Shares per $1,000 principal amount of Convertible Debentures, subject to certain adjustments in accordance with the terms of the indenture governing the Convertible Debentures.
Prior to this, Birch Hill held 4,030,000 Common Shares, representing approximately 9.51% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares.
Assuming the firm elects to convert its full debenture load, it would hold 9,556,897 common shares—about 20 percent of the total number of outstanding shares.
With Uni-Select currently trading at $10.45, the deal may sound hard to swallow. In the spring of 2018, however, the stock traded above $36.
Share Switch
On January 1, 2020, the Boyd Group Income Fund will become Boyd Group Services.
Last week, 97.77 percent of unitholders voted in favour of changing the structure of the fund, away from being an income trust and into a share-trading corporation.
The move comes after new laws eliminated the tax advantages given to trusts, which had existed since 2006.
