Preferred Shares

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

Preferred Shares [Abstract]

Preferred Stock [Text Block]

Preferred Shares

The Company’s Articles of Incorporation authorize the issuance of up to 2,000,000 preferred shares, par value $.01 per share.  On March 15, 2007, the Company issued 4,000,000 depositary shares, each representing 1/1000^th of a 9.75% Series A Preferred Share of the Company (the “Series A Preferred Shares”), or 4,000 Series A Preferred Shares in the aggregate.  On April 10, 2013, the Company redeemed 2,000 of its Series A Preferred Shares (and the 2,000,000 related depositary shares) for an aggregate redemption price of approximately $50.4 million in cash. On October 16, 2017, the Company redeemed the remaining 2,000 outstanding Series A Preferred Shares (and the 2,000,000 related depositary shares) for an aggregate redemption price of approximately $50.4 million in cash.

The Company declared and paid a quarterly dividend of $609.375 per share on its Series A Preferred Shares in the first three quarters of 2017, and in each quarter of both 2016 and 2015 and paid aggregate dividend payments on the Series A Preferred Shares of $3.7 million in 2017 and $4.9 million in both 2016 and 2015.