Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator instructions) Thank you, John. Our question will be from Jonathan Allen at RBC Capital. Please go ahead.
Jonathan Allen – RBC Capital
Thanks very much. Darren, like to ask you a question about the dividend policy. Last few years I think, four years or five years now you have done a regular dividend increase. While profitability has been depressed even with some of your peers I think they have reinforced the desire to have at least a modestly growing annual dividend policy going forward. So I'm just curious why the company is sticking with the 45% to 55% EPS payout ratio and either pushing that higher, particularly with the CapEx spending coming down next year, looks like you do have a better buffer on the free cash flow payout. Thanks.
Darren Entwistle
Number one, that's a long-term policy that we set out and taken a long-term view of our earnings potential from a growth perspective we continue to believe that it’s the prudent policy for this organization. I think it’s also important to report that as a director on the board of TELUS the TELUS board remains committed to our long-term dividend growth model and more broadly to returning cash to investors through the appropriate mechanism, so they participate in the fruits of our labor, in terms of delivering economic returns from the J-curve investments that we make and I think our track record in this particular area is nothing short of exemplary.
John Wheeler
Fair to say, John, at this juncture we're experiencing some significant on strategy investments that in my estimation warranted a holiday on the successive dividend increases. I think it's important to illustrate empirically that if you go back to December of 2004 and look at the December 2004 to 2009 period we've returned $5.5 billion of cash to our investors over that particular period and a significant component of that was through five successive dividend increases that were rather material in nature and that is the long-term path for this organization.
Also if you look at the existing dividend given our stock price the yield has been toggling between 5% and 6% which we believe is attractive. As you’ve heard from Bob this morning, we've instituted the dividend or discount dividend reinvestment plan with a 3% discount, again, I think that’s attractive in terms of investors wanting to reinvest in our stock.
Jonathan Allen – RBC Capital
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