Toronto, Ontario — This week, the Tuesday Ticker covers the Boyd Group’s upcoming dividend; Hyundai’s plan to conquer the air-taxi market in just four years and Statistics Canada’s reports of fast-paced inflation rates.
Bucks for Boyd
Boyd Group Services last week announced a cash dividend for the second quarter of 2021 of $0.141 per common share.
The dividend will be payable on July 28, 2021, to common shareholders of record at the close of business on June 30, 2021.
Shareholders who are non-residents of Canada will be subject to withholding taxes in respect of any dividends made by Boyd Group Services.
To the skies
Hyundai is prepared to take flight in the near future—the OEM says it could offer an air-taxi service as soon as 2025, Reuters reported last week.
Hyundai’s global COO Jose Munoz told Reuters last week that the OEM is ahead of its previously stated timetable for rolling out air mobility vehicles.
“We see this market as a significant growth opportunity,” Munoz told Reuters, adding that he is “very confident” of technology’s development.
Hyundai is developing air taxis powered by electric batteries that can transport five to six people from highly congested urban centers to airports. Hyundai does not want to sell flying cars as a simple transaction, but believes it can develop services around the vehicles, Munoz said.
General Motors also has its eyes on the skies; the OEM released a flying Cadillac concept in January. Though its executives are looking at a slightly longer timeline for its flying vehicles.
“I think that there’s a long pathway here,” Pamela Fletcher, vice president of GM’s Global Innovation team, said at the Reuters event.
“2030 is probably a real commercial inflection point.”
Up we go…where we’ll stop? Nobody knows
Canada’s inflation rate increased 3.6 percent in May, marking the fastest pace in a decade, Statistics Canada said last week.
The data agency said in a news release Wednesday that the cost of just about everything is going up at a much faster pace than usual, from shelter and vehicles to food, energy and consumer goods.
Gas prices, for one, have increased 43 percent in the past year. While that can be chalked up to last year’s lower-than-low prices and decreased demand, the cost of gasoline still increased by 3.2 percent this May, compared with April’s levels.
The cost of new vehicles also increased five percent in the past year, mainly due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage affecting automakers globally.
Prior to StatsCan’s announcement, economists expected the inflation number to be high, with estimates around 3.5 percent, according to a Bloomberg poll.
In reality, the 3.6 percent inflation rate suggests Canada’s economy is beginning to rev back to life after stalling out during COVID-19.
