BCE.PR.C / BCE.PR.D Conversion Notices Sent

BCE Inc. has sent out its conversion notices for BCE.PR.C and BCE.PR.D:

As of March 1, 2013, the Series AC Preferred Shares, should they remain outstanding, will pay, on a quarterly basis, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of BCE Inc., a fixed cash dividend for the following five years that will be determined by BCE Inc. on February 4, 2013 but which shall not be less than 80% of the five-year Government of Canada Yield (as defined in BCE Inc.’s articles) compounded semi-annually and computed on February 4, 2013 by two investment dealers appointed by BCE Inc. The annual dividend rate applicable to the Series AC Preferred Shares will be published on February 6, 2013 in the national edition of The Globe and Mail, the Montreal Gazette and La Presse and will be posted on BCE Inc.’s website at www.bce.ca.

As far as deadlines for conversion go:

In order to convert your shares, you must exercise your right of conversion during the conversion period, which runs from January 15, 2013 to February 19, 2013, inclusively.

Note that brokerages will have their own deadlines for notice, which may be a few days earlier than the date on which BCE must be notified – so if you’re contemplating conversion, check well in advance!

There are no huge interconversion profits available to arbitrageurs this time around – the difference in expected dividends appears to be covered by the bid-ask spreads.

I will make a recommendation of which issue is preferable once the new dividend rate for the FixedFloater, BCE.PR.C, has been announced.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.