The City’s 2012 audited financial statement is now available online. It’s now the only source of numbers about CityWest’s financial performance, since the company no longer makes its’ financials available and does not present them at a public council meeting as the company’s articles require.
CityWest did not pay a $500,000 dividend in 2012. Instead it made a $500,000 loan repayment to the City.
The track record has been that CityWest has not paid a dividend since 2009. As we now know they will not be paying a dividend in 2013 and, according to a report from Mr Rodin, a dividend will not be paid in 2014 either. So this is the fourth year in a row without a dividend and we should expect that to continue for at least another year.
CityWest repaid $1,000,000 in debt in 2011, which was the first year that it repaid debt. The total interest free loan to CityWest now sits at $21,232,762. Including $7,663,000 of equity the total value of the City’s investment was $28,895,763 at the end of 2012.
The company made a profit of $1,359,000 in 2012. Taking into account a $1,370,000 profit in 2011, CityWest has recovered considerably from a $3,945,000 loss in 2010.
From the cash point of view, a $500,000 loan repayment was no different to the City than if it had received a $500,000 dividend in 2012.
Considering, though, that the preference now seems to be that if CityWest pays anything it will be repayments on the principal of the outstanding debt, in the interests of clarity the council should really stop talking about receiving or expecting “dividends” from CityWest. If things are going reasonably well, the CityWest will repay some debt. That seems to be the current policy or thinking between the CityWest board and the City council.
So there you have it, folks, the financial information that for whatever reasons CityWest could not report at the April 22, 2013 public council meeting.
The most pertinent CityWest information can be found in Statement H (page 9) and in Note 8 (page 13):
princerupert.ca/images/edito … report.pdf