Hi Shail,
For starters, the sudden drop last week is a result of a 3 for 2 stock split - nothing to be concerned about and nothing changes in terms of valuation as a result of that stock split.
We've talked about BEP and BEPC a few times. In essence, BEPC was split up from BEP to be a more tax efficient way for US and institutional investors to invest in Brookfield Renewables. From an accounting standpoint ,they are intended to be economically equivalent.
The major difference is in how taxes on dividends are treaded. In the simplest of terms, the tax implications are minimal for Canadians if held inside a registered account as the distributions are not taxed. Held outside of a TFSA, than it becomes tricker as there are many more tax implications on BEP.UN distributions. BEPC's distributions would be treated as eligible dividends. We recommend talking to a tax advisor to understand the implications if held in a non-registered (cash) account.
In terms of which is best - at the moment BEPC is outperforming BEP.UN. This is likely because it is attracting a much larger investor base (US Retail and Institutions). However, the gap seems to have stabilized around the 30% range which means both are likely to trade in line with each other moving forward with some short-term gaps in between. For all intents and purposes, they are economically equivalent which means 1 share of BEP.UN equals 1 share of BEPC on the books.
Mat