Such was the case in 2017, when Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:CUF.UN), one of Canada's largest diversified REITs, suffered a rating downgrade on its unsecured debentures from investment grade (BBB(low) with Negative trend) to speculative grade (BB(high) from DBRS after a long period of poor portfolio performance and an unsustainable pay-out rate. The trust announced a massive distribution on the same day and made another cut in the following year.