From the Desk of Irwin Michael – September 23, 2016: Brookfield Property Partners L.P. Brookfield Property Partners L.P. owns, operates and invests in commercial properties in North America, the UK, Europe, Australia, and Brazil. With the recent Brexit vote result and its subsequent price decline, BPY shares appeared quite undervalued, trading under net asset value and providing a solid dividend yield. Upon further analysis, Brookfield Property Partners fits in perfectly with our investment strategy, which we outlined in our August 2016 ABC Perspective. “Our ABC Funds are taking advantage of the current low interest rate environment and have aligned our portfolios to include: Liquid high quality, larger capitalization dividend-paying stocks in diverse industries Dividend-paying stocks with good dividend growth potential A reduction and significant underweight of low-yielding bonds in our balanced fund portfolio replacing them with larger, high quality dividend paying stocks.” Aside from Brookfield Property Partners’ attractive yield, there are several other positive investment attributes of BPY. Firstly, it has a geographically diverse group of income producing assets across several classes (office and retail, etc.), all of which contribute to its dividend yield of 4.7%. With an expanding portfolio of assets there is potential to increase its dividend going forward. Secondly, Brookfield has a successful record of investing, developing and managing properties, dependent upon a very capable management. Thirdly, the company uses its free cash flow to expand its real estate portfolio and to buy back shares via a normal course issuer bid. Irwin A. Michael, President I.A. Michael Investment Counsel Ltd.
