Yellow Media Inc. has announced:
that Yellow Pages Income Fund (the Fund) has completed today the previously announced plan of arrangement pursuant to which the Fund’s income trust structure has been converted into a dividend paying publicly traded corporation named Yellow Media Inc. On May 6, 2010, unitholders of the Fund approved the conversion to a corporate structure by a vote of 99.8 percent. Under the plan of arrangement, unitholders of the Fund received, for each unit of the Fund held, one common share of the resulting public corporation. Common shares of Yellow Media Inc. will commence trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on November 1, 2010 under the symbol YLO.
This ticker change applies to the company’s four series of preferred shares outstanding: The Operating Retractibles, YPG.PR.A and YPG.PR.B are now YLO.PR.A and YLO.PR.B, respectively. The FixedResets YPG.PR.C and YPG.PR.D, are now YLO.PR.C and YLO.PR.D respectively.
It is of interest to note the following from the 3Q10 Management Discussion and Analysis:
On June 8, 2010, Yellow Media Inc. received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange on its notice of intention to renew its normal course issuer bid for its preferred shares, Series 1 and preferred shares, Series 2 through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange from June 11, 2010 to no later than June 10, 2011, in accordance with applicable rules and regulations of the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Under its normal course issuer bid, Yellow Media Inc. intends to purchase for cancellation up to but not more than 1,174,691 and 720,000 of its outstanding preferred shares, Series 1 and preferred shares, Series 2, respectively, representing 10% of the public float of each series of preferred shares outstanding on June 8, 2010.
For the first nine months of 2010, Yellow Media Inc. purchased for cancellation 604,748 preferred shares, Series 1 for a total cash consideration of $15 million including brokerage fees at an average price of $24.76 per share and 260,250 preferred shares, Series 2 for a total cash consideration of $5.2 million including brokerage fees at an average price of $20.17 per share. The carrying value of these preferred shares, Series 1 and Series 2 was $14.9 million and $6.4 million, respectively.
Since June 11, 2009, the total cost of repurchasing preferred shares amounted to $33.9 million, including brokerage fees.
[…] YLO was last mentioned on PrefBlog when the ticker changed from YPG. […]
ylo.pr.d
obviously this one has always had credit concerns and the market is anticipating a dividend cut.
however the recent price action has been gut wrenching and in my opinion has taken this preferred way below the short-medium credit risk in the company?
any opinions on whether this is still a sell at $18.25 or worth the risk?
A dividend cut will only affect the common; the preferred dividends must be paid in full unless the common dividend is cut to zero, at which point it is possible for the company to default on dividends, although still unlikely.
Typically – although this is by no means a guarantee – a company will continue to pay its preferred dividends in full until such time as it files for bankruptcy. This was the case with Nortel and Quebecor World, which were discussed extensively on PrefBlog. I cannot remember any operating company defaulting on its preferred dividends without immediately applying for creditor protection.
YLO is a sorta half-decent credit, kind of. DBRS rates it at Pfd-3(high) and I have no quarrel with that rating. So it’s junk, but it’s good junk, as junk goes. The sale of Trader Group and the application of the proceeds to debt reduction is credit-positive for the company, although the common shareholders may not be all that thrilled.
All that being said … YLO is junk. Good junk, but junk. I recommend that all such issues be constrained to a weight of less than 10% in a diversified preferred share portfolio, with no more than 3-5% in any single name.