Stock merger from Cdn to US Exchange

Question

Hi All: Primo Water Corp just completed a stock merger from their TSX:PRMW to NasDaq:PRMB  1:1 on Nov 8th on TSX and opened on Nov 11th on NasDaq.  Now i am attempting to complete this transaction in Quicken Windows classic R59.9.    No luck with 'Shares transferred between account' cause Quicken says; needs to be in the same currency.  No luck trying Corporate Acquisition.  Does anyone have any alternative suggestions?  Thank you

Tom Young · Answer

I haven't looked up the details of this particular deal so I'm working with your statement of what happened.

Since it appears that your shares of PRMW traded in Canada (even though PRMW also traded in the US) and the new combination company will trade only in the US, you're now going to have your holdings of all your shares valued in US dollars, ultimately.

What follows is a pure guess, pretty much, since I'm assuming there's no "income tax effect" arising from the merger and I've had no experience with multi-currency in Quicken.

It appears that the principal stumbling block is the switch from Canadian dollars to US dollars so that you can use the Corporate Acquisition (stock for stock) action.

IF Canadian tax law follow a similar procedure as US tax law when it comes to acquiring stock denominated in a foreign currency, you need to create a new Investment Account in Quicken, using US currency.  You then do an Add action for each lot of PRMW you own in the new Investment Account, using the correct Acquisition date for each lot and the correct exchange rate between Canadian and US dollars at that date.  (Hopefully you don't have 20 years of dividend reinvestments in this stock 😄),  You should end up with an Account that matches your holdings, pre-merger, in the Canadian dollar Account.

At that point you should be able to use the new Account to use the Corporate Acquisition (stock for stock) action.

Be sure to make a backup of the file before beginning the process.

NotACPA · Answer

Because of the change in currency,  it looks  to me like your only option is a Shares Removed in the CAD account and a Shares Added in a USD account.

While Shares Removed doesn't have an amount field, Shares Added does …  but you'll have  to figure out the cost basis of the holding,  in USD, yourself.