BSC.PR.B Upgraded to Pfd-2 by DBRS

DBRS has announced that it:

has today upgraded the rating of the Class B Preferred Shares, Series 1 (the Class B Preferred Shares) issued by BNS Split Corp. II (the Company) to Pfd-2 from Pfd-2 (low). The Class B Preferred Shares were issued in September 2010, following a reorganization of the Company. The Company used the proceeds from the initial share issuance of Class A Preferred Shares and Class A Capital Shares to purchase a portfolio of common shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (currently rated AA by DBRS).

The performance of the Company has been positive since the last rating action. Downside protection increased steadily to 67.5% on April 10, 2014, from 63.9% on August 1, 2013, while increases in dividend distributions from underlying banks helped boost the dividend coverage ratio. As a result, the rating of the Class B Preferred Shares has been upgraded to Pfd-2 from Pfd-2 (low).

BSC.PR.B was last mentioned on PrefBlog at the time of a partial redemption last September (with a brief aside recently that it is the most illiquid issue in the HIMIPref™ universe). It is tracked by HIMIPref™ but relegated to the Scraps index on volume concerns.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.