For the third time in a year, the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec is selling a large block of shares in the Montreal computer services company CGI.
CGI’s largest institutional shareholder announced on Monday the sale of a block of shares worth $400 million. The Caisse had also sold $400 million of CGI shares last March, and $100 million of CGI shares six months ago.
In total, the Caisse has therefore now announced the sale of CGI shares for 900 million dollars over the past 12 months.
The most recent stock sale comes as CGI’s stock hit a high of $125 on the Toronto Stock Exchange this month.
These transactions are carried out privately between the Caisse and CGI, which uses its share buyback program for cancellation purposes.
A 3% discount from CGI’s stock price at the close of trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday is applied for the completion of the transaction announced on Monday. The Caisse thus sells this time a little more than 3.3 million shares at a unit price of $119.58.
The Caisse de dépôt’s stake in CGI will now be 8.2%. It was previously at 9.5%.
The Caisse explains that its decision to sell CGI shares is part of the periodic rebalancing of its portfolio.
“CGI continues to produce excellent results for its shareholders and this share buyback is an opportunity to monetize part of our investment for the benefit of our depositors”, commented in a press release Kim Thomassin, Senior Vice-President and Head of Quebec. at the depository.
“We intend to continue to support CGI, a world leader in information technology that is well positioned to continue to enjoy market success, in Quebec and internationally,” she continued.
The Caisse says it intends to reinvest in Quebec companies the amount obtained from the sale of CGI shares.
On Bay Street, 12 of the 14 analysts who officially follow CGI’s activities recommend buying the stock.
CGI shares fell 1% on Monday to close the first session of the week at $122.42 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.