PrefBlog

First National Financial Corporation has announced:

a Canadian public offering of Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Class A Preference Shares, Series 1 (“Series 1 Preferred Shares”). First National will issue 4 million Series 1 Preferred Shares priced at $25 per share to raise gross proceeds of C$100 million. The offering will be underwritten by a syndicate of investment dealers led by RBC Capital Markets and Scotia Capital Inc.

The offering is being made in all the provinces of Canada by means of a prospectus and the expected closing date is on or about January 25, 2011. The net proceeds of the offering will be used to repay current indebtedness as well as for general corporate purposes.

Holders of the Series 1 Preferred Shares will be entitled to receive a cumulative quarterly fixed dividend yielding 4.65% annually for the initial period ending March 31, 2016. Thereafter, the dividend rate will be reset every five years at a rate equal to the 5-year Government of Canada yield plus 2.07%.

Holders of Series 1 Preferred Shares will have the right, at their option, to convert their shares into Cumulative, Floating Rate Class A Preference Shares, Series 2 (“Series 2 Preferred Shares”), subject to certain conditions, on March 31, 2016 and on March 31 every five years thereafter. Holders of the Series 2 Preferred Shares will be entitled to receive cumulative quarterly floating dividends at a rate equal to the 3-month Government of Canada Treasury Bill yield plus 2.07%.

This is interesting because First National is a shadow-bank:

First National is Canada’s largest non-bank lender, offering both commercial and residential mortgage solutions.

Through a combination of our innovative mortgage solutions, Merlin our industry leading mortgage approval and tracking system, and the experts we have on our team, First National has earned trust with Mortgage Brokers, Commercial Clients as well as Residential Customers.

These strong relationships are thanks to an unwavering commitment to delivering excellent service. A Commitment shared by Senior Management and every member of the First National team

Since it’s not regulated as a bank, FN doesn’t have to worry about formal definitions of Tier 1 Capital, so it can make its preferred shares cumulative. Theoretically, this should result in less “equity credit” for the shares and hence detract from the credit quality of issues senior to it. Theoretically.

Update, 2011-1-19: DBRS rates Pfd-3

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 at 12:35 pm and is filed under New Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.