Bloomberg - Canso Investment Counsel Ltd. became BlackBerry Ltd.’s third-largest investor, after converting $300 million of the smartphone maker’s debt into stock.
The Canadian fund manager now holds 5.4 percent of BlackBerry’s common shares, according to a U.S. securities filing on Thursday. That places Canso behind Primecap Management Co. and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Canso participated in a $1 billion convertible-bond sale in November 2013. The sale helped Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry shore up its finances after a plan by Fairfax to take the company private fell apart.
BlackBerry’s shares have risen 87 percent in Canadian trading since Chief Executive Officer John Chen took over shortly before the bond sale and began working to diversify the company’s business into software and services.
The company’s stock fell less than 1 percent to C$12.61 at 12:39 p.m. Thursday in Toronto.
