GWO.PR.N / GWO.PR.O : Forced Conversion To FixedReset

Great-West Lifeco Inc. has announced:

that holders of 59,830 Lifeco Non-Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset First Preferred Shares, Series N (the “Series N Shares”) have elected to convert their shares into Non-Cumulative Floating Rate First Preferred Shares, Series O (the “Series O Shares”) and that holders of 547,303 Series O Shares have elected to convert their shares into Series N Shares.

Lifeco currently has 8,524,422 Series N Shares and 1,475,578 Series O Shares outstanding. After taking into account all shares tendered for conversion, there would be less than one million Series O Shares outstanding on December 31, 2020. As a result and in accordance with the terms and conditions attached to the shares, no Series N Shares may be converted into Series O Shares and all remaining Series O Shares will automatically be converted into Series N Shares on a one-for-one basis on December 31, 2020. Lifeco will give written notice to that effect to any registered holder on or before Thursday, December 24, 2020.

Following the automatic conversion, Lifeco will have 10,000,000 Series N Shares and no Series O Shares issued and outstanding. The Series N Shares and Series O Shares are currently listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols GWO.PR.N and GWO.PR.O, respectively.

GWO.PR.N was issued as a FixedReset, 3.65%+130, that commenced trading 2010-11-23 after being announced 2010-11-15. The issue was met with disfavour and there was an inventory clearance sale closing 2010-12-3. After a notice of extension the issue issue reset to 2.176% in 2015. I recommended against conversion; there was a 15% conversion to the FloatingReset GWO.PR.O anyway. The company provided another notice of extension in November, 2020. The issue will reset to 1.749% effective 2020-12-31. It is tracked by HIMIPref™ and is assigned to the FixedReset (Insurance) subindex.

GWO.PR.O is a FloatingReset, Bills+130, that arose in 2015 via a partial conversion from GWO.PR.N. GWO.PR.O is tracked by HIMIPref™ but has been relegated to the Scraps – FloatingReset subindex on volume concerns.

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