April 29, 2014

The scavenging of the corpse of Nortel is approaching an end:

Canadian pensioners at Nortel Networks Corp. are heading into a rare cross-border trial in May to try to ensure more of the defunct company’s remaining assets are allocated to the Canadian division in an effort to boost the company’s underfunded pension plan.

The hearing, which runs from May 12 to June 27, will be conducted using video links before two judges – one in Toronto and one in Delaware – and will hear arguments from lawyers from Canada, the U.S. and Britain about how the remaining Nortel assets should be divided among the three jurisdictions.

Creditors, including Nortel pension funds and bondholders, have submitted claims worth $36-billion, while estimated assets currently total about $9-billion, including $7.3-billion raised from asset sales.

Canadian pensioners say the heart of their battle is a dispute with Nortel’s bondholders, who they accuse of manoeuvring to have more assets assigned to Nortel’s U.S. estate in an effort to improve their odds of receiving more than $1-billion of unpaid interest on their bonds from the time Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009.

Andrew Hallam points out in the Globe that IA Clarington is being naughty:

IA-Clarington-adClick for Big

In a recent advertisement, they claim market-beating performance for three of their funds. They compared their Strategic Income Fund, Strategic Equity Income and their Strategic Corporate Bond Fund to a Canadian stock index. By doing so, however, they compared toasters to microwaves. None of IA Clarington’s advertised market-beating funds hold significant amounts of Canadian stocks. So why compare them to a Canadian stock index? Investors should be wary of advertorial sleight of hand.

The advertisement states, “At IA Clarington we believe that truly active managers, ones who apply skill, conviction and opportunity, can and do consistently outperform [indexes] over the long term.” But the funds in the advertisement are less than three years old.

I examined each of their funds with 10-year track records in six separate categories: Canadian Equity, Balanced, U.S. Equity, International Equity, Canadian Bond and Canadian Short Term Government Bond. Over the decade, IA Clarington’s fund performances fell 22.5 per cent short. They’re also the only firm I’ve compared in this series so far to underperform retail indexes in all six categories.

It was a strong day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts winning 29bp, FixedResets gaining 13bp and DeemedRetractibles up 20bp. This burst the dam on the performance report, which features a fine host of winners; mostly FixedResets. Volume was high, with a big crop of six-figure volumes.

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.3312 % 2,419.2
FixedFloater 4.64 % 3.88 % 32,102 17.74 1 0.2940 % 3,699.7
Floater 3.01 % 3.15 % 50,783 19.34 4 0.3312 % 2,612.1
OpRet 4.35 % -4.71 % 34,126 0.09 2 -0.0967 % 2,697.3
SplitShare 4.80 % 4.41 % 65,171 4.20 5 0.0873 % 3,093.0
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.0967 % 2,466.4
Perpetual-Premium 5.54 % -7.35 % 106,617 0.09 13 0.0483 % 2,389.5
Perpetual-Discount 5.37 % 5.37 % 110,747 14.62 23 0.2881 % 2,509.0
FixedReset 4.61 % 3.54 % 205,087 4.38 78 0.1271 % 2,547.0
Deemed-Retractible 5.01 % -2.51 % 143,342 0.15 42 0.1951 % 2,506.4
FloatingReset 2.67 % 2.44 % 179,031 4.09 5 0.0551 % 2,486.1
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
MFC.PR.F FixedReset -1.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.22
Bid-YTW : 4.23 %
TRP.PR.B FixedReset 1.13 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-04-29
Maturity Price : 20.64
Evaluated at bid price : 20.64
Bid-YTW : 3.69 %
BAM.PR.X FixedReset 1.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-04-29
Maturity Price : 21.50
Evaluated at bid price : 21.87
Bid-YTW : 4.20 %
ENB.PR.N FixedReset 1.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2018-12-01
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.30
Bid-YTW : 3.88 %
BAM.PR.N Perpetual-Discount 1.19 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-04-29
Maturity Price : 21.27
Evaluated at bid price : 21.27
Bid-YTW : 5.65 %
IAG.PR.A Deemed-Retractible 1.34 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.65
Bid-YTW : 5.87 %
TRP.PR.A FixedReset 1.70 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-04-29
Maturity Price : 23.23
Evaluated at bid price : 23.91
Bid-YTW : 3.78 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
IAG.PR.G FixedReset 346,612 Nesbitt crossed blocks of 58,900 shares, 175,000 and 100,000, all at 25.90.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2017-06-30
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.88
Bid-YTW : 3.25 %
TRP.PR.A FixedReset 172,685 Nesbitt crossed blocks of 110,000 and 51,800, both at 23.70.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-04-29
Maturity Price : 23.23
Evaluated at bid price : 23.91
Bid-YTW : 3.78 %
BAM.PR.Z FixedReset 169,488 RBC crossed blocks of 71,000 and 83,000, both at 25.85.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2017-12-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.88
Bid-YTW : 3.89 %
BMO.PR.S FixedReset 151,844 Recent new issue.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2019-05-25
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.46
Bid-YTW : 3.63 %
BAM.PR.R FixedReset 136,986 RBC crossed blocks of 65,000 and 11,900 at 26.00, and another 50,000 at 26.07.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2016-06-30
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.92
Bid-YTW : 3.84 %
CIU.PR.B FixedReset 109,047 Nesbitt crossed 108,700 at 25.40.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-06-01
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.37
Bid-YTW : 2.27 %
RY.PR.Y FixedReset 108,169 TD crossed 94,000 at 25.66.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-11-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.60
Bid-YTW : 1.14 %
HSE.PR.A FixedReset 104,272 Nesbitt crossed 100,000 at 23.00.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-04-29
Maturity Price : 22.60
Evaluated at bid price : 22.94
Bid-YTW : 3.83 %
SLF.PR.F FixedReset 103,401 TD crossed 102,200 at 25.34.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-06-30
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.32
Bid-YTW : 1.16 %
There were 43 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
MFC.PR.G FixedReset Quote: 26.14 – 26.90
Spot Rate : 0.7600
Average : 0.4720

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2016-12-19
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.14
Bid-YTW : 2.80 %

PWF.PR.L Perpetual-Discount Quote: 24.10 – 24.39
Spot Rate : 0.2900
Average : 0.1884

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-04-29
Maturity Price : 23.82
Evaluated at bid price : 24.10
Bid-YTW : 5.31 %

BNS.PR.R FixedReset Quote: 25.75 – 26.08
Spot Rate : 0.3300
Average : 0.2307

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2019-01-26
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.75
Bid-YTW : 3.16 %

MFC.PR.L FixedReset Quote: 24.95 – 25.20
Spot Rate : 0.2500
Average : 0.1529

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.95
Bid-YTW : 3.99 %

PWF.PR.R Perpetual-Premium Quote: 25.40 – 25.66
Spot Rate : 0.2600
Average : 0.1675

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2021-04-30
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.40
Bid-YTW : 5.25 %

CIU.PR.C FixedReset Quote: 21.32 – 21.68
Spot Rate : 0.3600
Average : 0.2777

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2044-04-29
Maturity Price : 21.32
Evaluated at bid price : 21.32
Bid-YTW : 3.71 %

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