PrefBlog

Great-West Lifeco has announced:

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (“Lifeco” or the “Company”) has today entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters co-led by BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and Scotiabank under which the underwriters have agreed to buy, on a bought deal basis, 6,000,000 Non-Cumulative First Preferred Shares, Series P (the “Series P Shares”) from Lifeco for sale to the public at a price of $25.00 per Series P Share, representing aggregate gross proceeds of $150 million.

Lifeco has granted the underwriters an underwriters’ option to purchase an additional 2,000,000 Series P Shares at the same offering price. Should the underwriters’ option be fully exercised, the total gross proceeds of the Series P Shares offering will be $200 million.

The Series P Shares will yield 5.40% per annum, payable quarterly, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of the Company. The Series P Shares will not be redeemable prior to March 31, 2017. On or after March 31, 2017, the Company may, on not less than 30 nor more than 60 days’ notice, redeem the Series P Shares in whole or in part, at the Company’s option, by the payment in cash of $26.00 per Series P Share if redeemed prior to March 31, 2018, of $25.75 per Series P Share if redeemed on or after March 31, 2018 but prior to March 31, 2019, of $25.50 per Series P Share if redeemed on or after March 31, 2019 but prior to March 31, 2020, of $25.25 per Series P Share if redeemed on or after March 31, 2020 but prior to March 31, 2021 and of $25.00 per Series P Share if redeemed on or after March 31, 2021, in each case together with all declared and unpaid dividends up to but excluding the date fixed for redemption.

The Series P Shares offering is expected to close on February 22, 2012. The net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and to augment Lifeco’s current liquidity position.

It has been almost two years since the last Straight offering, which was GWO.PR.M, listed on 2010-3-4. Mind you, the market doesn’t seem too thrilled – comparable issues have dropped substantially since the announcement earlier this morning.

Update: Upsized to $250-million, no greenshoe.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 10th, 2012 at 12:27 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.