Subject: Re: Downgrade from buy to hold
MUNGO: What about BROOKFIELD complex? You were a fan in the past?
BIP looking like massive fat pitch?

I have cooled on the Brookfield family in recent years.

In the end, I just don't quite trust them enough to have a big allocation. I don't think they are crooks, but...I can't help but think that there is a level of complexity that is considerably beyond what would strictly be necessary if the only goal were maximizing value for continuing outside shareholders. Which means, the existence of other reasons should be considered a possibility. If you can't understand what a company is saying in the statements, occasionally it's on purpose.

And if it isn't to be a big allocation, it's not worth the herculean task of making sense of all the structures and statements.

As for BIP in particular, it's a dividend play.
Those are rarely of interest to me, for a variety of reasons. I have horrible tax consequences on dividends compared to capital gains (marginal tax rate difference 30%), and things run for the dividend are rarely run for the best long run total return. Plus, dividend sales pitches often lead to unsustainable dividends. If the coupon is the only attraction, it gets unattractive rapidly if the coupon gets cut.

Jim