The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Lowe's, which acquired all of Rona's common shares earlier this year for a reasonable price but which declined to do the same for the company's preferred shareholders, has returned. The Post's Barry Critchley, writing in Off the Record, says that this time round, Lowe's is offering $24 a share to the holders of its Series 6 Class A fixed rate preferred shares and its Series 7 floating rate pref shares. Earlier this year, the offer to the holders of its then Class 5 fixed rate prefs was $20 a share. Less than five years earlier, investors paid $25 for each pref share, a haul of $172.5-million for Rona, for which it paid an annual dividend of 5.25 per cent. The pref shareholders turned down the $20-a-share offer at a vote held less than eight weeks later. Providing the fairness opinion was Scotia Capital. One shareholder, Stirling Funds, termed the $20-a-share offer "opportunistic and an egregious attempt by them to circumvent the proper takeover provisions of the preferred shares." The investment firm added it was "unfortunate" that Lowe's "has chosen to shortchange the retail investor." That offer is backed by a fairness opinion, this time by RBC.