My heart sank as I began tracking down these guys in response to a query. Union Gas Limited is owned by Spectra Energy, which I am sure is a very nice company, run by people who are kind to small fluffy animals, but is completely useless at communicating with preferred shareholders of its subsidiaries.
Union Gas still publishes audited financials on SEDAR and the 2008 Annual Report discloses:
12. Mandatorily Redeemable Preference Shares
| Outstanding | |||||
| Authorized | Series | 2008 | 2007 | 2008 | 2007 |
| (shares) | (shares) | ($millions) | |||
| Class A – 112,072 | Series A, 5.5% | 47,672 | 47,672 | 3 | 3 |
| Series C, 5.0% | 49,500 | 49,500 | 2 | 2 | |
The Class A Preference Shares, Series A and C are cumulative and redeemable at $50.50 per share. The Company is obligated to offer to purchase $170,000 of Series A and $140,000 of Series C shares annually at the lowest price obtainable, but not exceeding $50 per share.
Any further information will have to come from Spectra!
UNG.PR.C = Class A Series A
UNG.PR.D = Class A Series B
No annual purchase requirement on UNG.PR.D. Redeemable at $55.
Why they leave these outstanding is a mystery. They issued long MTNs in 2008 at 6.05% and their effective tax rate is about 20%, so the preferreds would appear to be relatively expensive. But the company’s a regulated utility, so perhaps there’s some obscure regulatory benefit.
[…] Gas is the proud issuer of two preferred shares: UNG.PR.C and UNG.PR.D, which have been discussed in passing on […]
[…] Gas is the proud issuer of two preferred shares: UNG.PR.C and UNG.PR.D, which have been discussed in passing on PrefBlog, but neither is tracked by HIMIPref™. The commencement of CreditWatch-Negative […]