February 27, 2013

To my surprise, an adult was quoted regarding the role of underwriters in capital markets:

In both cases, banks that profited by bringing the securities to market were later accused of misrepresenting the risks and contributing to losses. Their defense was that they were serving clients who wanted to buy the securities, as well as helping finance entrepreneurs and homeowners. They said they attracted undue criticism for essentially playing the role of middlemen and that they shouldn’t be held responsible for investors’ decisions to buy the securities.

“They’re intermediaries, and they’re not supposed to make up their minds for their customers as to what’s good for them, they’re supposed to supply them with what they want,” said Roy Smith, a finance professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a former Goldman Sachs partner.

Smith said bond prospectuses “point out repeatedly that just because the market price goes down, that’s not something we can be responsible for.”

However, I have no doubt but that a few lawyers and boxtickers at the SEC are excitedly preparing indictments against the salesmen who sell their clients things “they know are about to fall”.

Canadian Western Bank has announced an issuer bid for CWB.PR.A:

Canadian Western Bank (the “Bank”) today announced the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada (OSFI) have approved the Bank’s normal course issuer bid (NCIB) to purchase, for cancelation, up to 826,120 Non-Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares Series 3 (“preferred shares”). The number of preferred shares to be purchased under the NCIB represents approximately 10% of the 8,390,000 preferred shares issued and outstanding as at February 27, 2013.

Purchases under the NCIB may begin on March 1, 2013 and will end no later than February 28, 2014. The price paid for any preferred shares purchased will be the market price of such shares on the TSX at the time of acquisition. Purchases will be effected through the facilities of the TSX and all preferred shares purchased pursuant to the NCIB will be canceled. Apart from block purchase exceptions, the maximum number of preferred shares that may purchased per trading day is 1,538, an amount equal to 25% of the average daily trading volume of the preferred shares on the TSX for the six month period ended January 31, 2013.

Management believes the purchase of preferred shares below a certain price threshold represents an appropriate use of available funds and is also consistent with strategies to enhance shareholder value while ensuring the Bank maintains its solid regulatory capital position.

Since CWB has no history of following up on issuer bids, this announcement doesn’t get its own post – it has to slum it in the daily commentary. I don’t see any reason why they might follow this up with actual cash dollars anyway – at today’s closing bid of 26.65, the issue yields only 1.98% until the 2014-4-30 call date.

ALB.PR.B was confirmed at Pfd-2(low) by DBRS:

Current downside protection available to holders of the Class B Preferred Shares is 56.3% as of February 14, 2013.

The Pfd-2 (low) rating of the Class B Preferred Shares is based primarily on the downside protection and dividend coverage available, as well as on the strong credit quality and consistency of dividend distributions of the Portfolio holdings.

The main constraints to the rating are the following:

(1) The downside protection provided to holders of the Class B Preferred Shares is dependent on the value of the shares in the Portfolio.

(2) Volatility of price and changes in the dividend policies of the Canadian banks may result in significant reductions in downside protection from time to time.

(3) The entire Portfolio is concentrated in the Canadian financial services industry.

The Class B Preferred Shares will be redeemed by the Company on February 28, 2016.

It was another mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums gaining 5bp, FixedResets off 5bp and DeemedRetractibles up 15bp. Volatility was low. Volume was well above average.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 4.91%, equivalent to about 6.38% interest at the standard conversion rate of 1.3x. Long corporates now yield about 4.3%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (in this context, the “Seniority Spread”) is now about 210bp, a significant widening from the 200bp reported February 20.

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 -0.7163 % 2,597.1
FixedFloater 4.08 % 3.41 % 24,456 18.48 1 0.5611 % 3,988.8
Floater 2.56 % 2.86 % 81,400 20.03 5 -0.7163 % 2,804.2
OpRet 4.80 % 2.69 % 45,287 0.33 5 0.1859 % 2,595.9
SplitShare 4.59 % 4.43 % 44,326 4.26 2 0.0799 % 2,934.6
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.1859 % 2,373.7
Perpetual-Premium 5.25 % -1.78 % 92,307 0.17 29 0.0474 % 2,353.0
Perpetual-Discount 4.84 % 4.91 % 129,892 15.59 4 0.1623 % 2,653.6
FixedReset 4.91 % 2.86 % 281,602 3.52 78 -0.0457 % 2,495.4
Deemed-Retractible 4.87 % 2.14 % 141,924 0.24 44 0.1485 % 2,440.7
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
BAM.PR.C Floater -2.86 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2043-02-27
Maturity Price : 18.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.00
Bid-YTW : 2.94 %
BAM.PR.K Floater -1.30 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2043-02-27
Maturity Price : 18.24
Evaluated at bid price : 18.24
Bid-YTW : 2.90 %
FTS.PR.H FixedReset -1.00 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2043-02-27
Maturity Price : 23.73
Evaluated at bid price : 25.64
Bid-YTW : 2.73 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
CM.PR.E Perpetual-Premium 72,380 Desjardins crossed 32,000 at 25.75; Nesbitt crossed 21,000 at the same price.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2013-03-29
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.73
Bid-YTW : -22.85 %
BAM.PR.B Floater 63,461 RBC crossed 48,900 at 18.60.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2043-02-27
Maturity Price : 18.52
Evaluated at bid price : 18.52
Bid-YTW : 2.86 %
ENB.PR.T FixedReset 57,540 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2043-02-27
Maturity Price : 23.21
Evaluated at bid price : 25.36
Bid-YTW : 3.71 %
TD.PR.E FixedReset 57,025 TD crossed 50,000 at 26.35.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-04-30
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.36
Bid-YTW : 1.93 %
TD.PR.S FixedReset 41,117 Desjardins bought 19,000 from Scotia at 25.10.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.10
Bid-YTW : 3.06 %
BMO.PR.N FixedReset 41,040 Scotia crossed 30,000 at 25.95.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-02-25
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.00
Bid-YTW : 2.47 %
There were 41 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
BAM.PR.C Floater Quote: 18.00 – 18.59
Spot Rate : 0.5900
Average : 0.3303

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2043-02-27
Maturity Price : 18.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.00
Bid-YTW : 2.94 %

HSE.PR.A FixedReset Quote: 26.50 – 27.12
Spot Rate : 0.6200
Average : 0.4699

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2016-03-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.50
Bid-YTW : 2.67 %

BAM.PR.K Floater Quote: 18.24 – 18.63
Spot Rate : 0.3900
Average : 0.2849

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2043-02-27
Maturity Price : 18.24
Evaluated at bid price : 18.24
Bid-YTW : 2.90 %

RY.PR.L FixedReset Quote: 25.59 – 25.85
Spot Rate : 0.2600
Average : 0.1785

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-02-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.59
Bid-YTW : 3.25 %

ENB.PR.N FixedReset Quote: 25.52 – 25.77
Spot Rate : 0.2500
Average : 0.1714

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2018-12-01
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.52
Bid-YTW : 3.61 %

RY.PR.X FixedReset Quote: 26.46 – 26.70
Spot Rate : 0.2400
Average : 0.1633

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2014-08-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 26.46
Bid-YTW : 2.31 %

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