Shaw Communications Inc.
As at December 31, 2019, there were 494,299,430 Class BNon-Voting Shares, 10,012,393 Series A Shares, 1,987,607 Series B Shares and 22,372,064 Class A Shares issued and outstanding. As at December 31, 2019, 8,032,723 Class BNon-Voting Shares were issuable on exercise of outstanding options. Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (Trading Symbols: TSX – SJR.B, SJR.PR.A, SJR.PR.B, NYSE – SJR, and TSXV – SJR.A). For more information, please visit www.shaw.ca.
Liquidity and capital resources
In the three-month period ended November 30, 2019, the Company generated $183 million of free cash flow. Shaw used its free cash flow along with cash of $1.3 billion, $80 million net proceeds from its accounts receivable securitization program, and proceeds from the issuance of Class BNon-Voting Shares of $3 million to fund the net working capital change of $123 million, pay common share dividends of $116 million, repay at maturity $1.25 billion 5.65% senior notes, repurchase $25 million in shares under the Company’s NCIB program, and pay $36 million in restructuring costs.
Debt structure and financial policy
The Company issued Class BNon-Voting Shares from treasury under its DRIP and incremental Class BNon-Voting Shares of $37 million during the three-month period ending November 30, 2019. On October 25, 2019, and in accordance with the terms of its Dividend Reinvestment Plan (the “DRIP”), the Company announced that in lieu of issuing shares from treasury, it will satisfy its share delivery obligations under the DRIP by purchasing Class BNon-Voting Shares on the open market. In addition, the Company reduced its discount from 2% to 0% for the Class BNon-Voting Shares delivered under the DRIP. These changes to the DRIP were first applied to the dividends payable on November 28, 2019 to shareholders of record on November 15, 2019.
The Company has established an accounts receivable securitization program with a Canadian financial institution which allows it to sell certain trade receivables into the program. As at November 30, 2019, the proceeds of the sales were committed up to a maximum of $200 million (with $120 million drawn under the program as at November 30, 2019). The Company continues to service and retain substantially all of the risks and rewards relating to the trade receivables sold, and therefore, the trade receivables remain recognized on the Company’s Consolidated Statement of Financial Position and the funding received is recorded as a current liability (revolving floating rate loans) secured by the trade receivables. The buyer’s interest in the accounts receivable ranks ahead of the Company’s interest and the program restricts it from using the trade receivables as collateral for any other purpose. The buyer of the trade receivable has no claim on any of our other assets.
As at November 30, 2019, the net debt leverage ratio for the Company was 2.5x. Considering the prevailing competitive, operational and capital market conditions, the Board of Directors has determined that having this ratio in the range of 2.5x to 3.0x would be optimal leverage for the Company in the current environment. Should the ratio fall below this, other than on a temporary basis, the Board may choose to recapitalize back into this optimal range. The Board may also determine to increase the Company’s debt above these levels to finance specific strategic opportunities such as a significant acquisition or repurchase of Class BNon-Voting Shares in the event that pricing levels were to drop precipitously. This target was updated from 2.0x to 2.5x in November 2019 based on the expected impact of IFRS 16.
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