Category: Issue Comments

Canadian Utilities Limited has announced:

it has closed its previously announced public offering of Cumulative Redeemable Second Preferred Shares Series JJ, by a syndicate of underwriters co-led by BMO Capital Markets and RBC Capital Markets, and including TD Securities Inc., Scotiabank, CIBC Capital Markets, National Bank Financial Inc., and ATB Capital Markets (the “Underwriters”). Canadian Utilities issued 8,050,000 Series JJ Preferred Shares for gross proceeds of $201,250,000, which includes the full exercise of the Underwriters’ over-allotment option. The Series JJ Preferred Shares will begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the “TSX”) today under the symbol CU.PR.K. Proceeds from the issue will be used for capital expenditures and for other general corporate purposes.

CU.PR.K is a Straight Perpetual, 5.60%, announced 2025-11-12. It has been assigned to the PerpetualDiscounts subindex.

The issue traded 487,376 shares today in a range of 24.88-00 before closing at 24.96-00. Vital statistics are:

Brookfield Corporation has announced:

the completion of its previously announced Class A Preference Shares, Series 54 (“Preferred Shares, Series 54”) issue in the amount of C$250,000,000 (the “Offering”). The Offering was underwritten on a bought deal basis by a syndicate of underwriters (the “Underwriters”) led by Scotiabank, BMO Capital Markets, CIBC Capital Markets, National Bank Financial Inc., RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities Inc.

A total of 10,000,000 Preferred Shares, Series 54 were issued at a price of C$25.00 per share, for gross proceeds of C$250,000,000. The issuance included 2,000,000 Preferred Shares, Series 54 issued pursuant to the exercise, in full, of the Underwriters’ option granted by Brookfield to the Underwriters in the Offering. Holders of the Preferred Shares, Series 54 will be entitled to receive a cumulative quarterly fixed dividend yielding 5.65% annually for the initial period ending December 31, 2030. Thereafter, the dividend rate will be reset every five years at a rate equal to the greater of: (i) the 5-year Government of Canada bond yield plus 2.80%, and (ii) 5.65%. The Preferred Shares, Series 54 will commence trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange this morning under the ticker symbol BN.PF.M. The Preferred Shares, Series 54 may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements under the U.S. Securities Act.

Brookfield intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to redeem all of its outstanding Cumulative Class A Preference Shares, Series 44 (“Preferred Shares, Series 44”) (TSX: BN.PF.H) for cash on December 31, 2025. The redemption price for each share will be C$25.00. Holders of Preferred Shares, Series 44 of record as of December 15, 2025 will receive the previously declared quarterly dividend of C$0.3125 per share, payable on December 31, 2025.

BN.PF.M is a FixedReset, 5.65%+280M565, announced 2025-11-19.

The redemption of BN.PF.H is discussed elsewhere.

The issue traded 819,110 shares today in a range of 25.05-45 before closing at 25.30-34. Vital statistics are:

Thanks to Assiduous Reader Brian for bringing this to my attention!

Great-West Lifeco Inc. has announced (on 2025-11-13):

that it does not intend to exercise its rights to redeem its outstanding Non-Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset First Preferred Shares, Series N (“Series N Shares”) on December 31, 2025. As a result and subject to certain conditions, holders of Series N Shares have the right to convert all or any of their Series N Shares into Non-Cumulative Floating Rate First Preferred Shares, Series O (“Series O Shares”) on a one-for-one basis on December 31, 2025.

Lifeco will send a formal notice of this conversion right to the registered holder of the Series N Shares in accordance with the terms and conditions attached to the shares. Holders of Series N Shares who do not exercise their conversion right will retain their Series N Shares.

The conversion right is subject to the following conditions: (i) if Lifeco determines that, after having taken into account all shares tendered for conversion, there would be less than one million Series O Shares outstanding on December 31, 2025, no Series N Shares may be converted into Series O Shares; and (ii) alternatively, if Lifeco determines that, after having taken into account all shares tendered for conversion, there would be less than one million Series N Shares outstanding on December 31, 2025, then all remaining Series N Shares will automatically be converted into Series O Shares on a one-for-one basis on December 31, 2025. In either case, Lifeco will give written notice to that effect to any registered holder affected by the preceding conditions on or before Wednesday, December 24, 2025.

The dividend rate applicable to the Series N Shares for the five-year period commencing on December 31, 2025 and ending on December 30, 2030, and the dividend rate applicable to the Series O Shares for the three-month period commencing on December 31, 2025 and ending on March 30, 2026, will be determined on Monday, December 1, 2025 and written notice of these rates will be given to the registered holder of the Series N Shares on that day.

Beneficial owners of Series N Shares who wish to convert their shares into Series O Shares should communicate as soon as possible with their broker or other nominee to ensure their instructions are followed, so that the registered holder of the Series N Shares can meet the deadline to exercise the conversion right, which is 5:00 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, December 16, 2025.

Lifeco may redeem the Series N Shares, in whole or in part, on December 31, 2030 and on December 31 every five years thereafter for $25.00 per share plus declared and unpaid dividends. Lifeco may redeem the Series O Shares, in whole or in part, on any date for $25.50 per share plus declared and unpaid dividends, unless such Series O Shares are redeemed on December 31, 2030 or on December 31 every five years thereafter, in which case the redemption price will be $25.00 per share plus declared and unpaid dividends.

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 reset to 1.749% effective 2020-12-31 and there was a forced conversion from GWO.PR.O to the FixedReset. The issue is tracked by HIMIPref™ and is assigned to the FixedReset (Insurance) subindex.

Power Corporation has announced:

the closing of its offering of 8,000,000 5.65% Non-Cumulative First Preferred Shares, Series I in the capital of the Corporation (the “Series I Shares”) priced at $25.00 per share for gross proceeds of $200 million. The issue was bought by a syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and Scotiabank.

The Series I shares will be listed and posted for trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “POW.PR.I”. The net proceeds of this offering will be used by Power Corporation for general corporate purposes.

POW.PR.I is a 5.65% Straight Perpetual announced 2025-11-13. It has been added to the PerpetualDiscount sub-index.

The issue traded 361,500 shares today in a range of 24.85-95 before closing at 24.87-88. Vital statistics are:

As part of its new issue announcement, Brookfield Corporation announced:

Brookfield intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to redeem a minimum of C$200,000,000 of its outstanding Cumulative Class A Preference Shares, Series 44 (“Preferred Shares, Series 44”) (TSX: BN.PF.H) for cash on December 31, 2025. If the Underwriters’ option is exercised in full, Brookfield intends to redeem all of its Preferred Shares, Series 44 on December 31, 2025. The redemption price for each share will be C$25.00. Holders of Preferred Shares, Series 44 of record as of December 15, 2025 will receive the previously declared quarterly dividend of C$0.3125 per share, payable on December 31, 2025.

BN.PF.H was issued as BAM.PF.H, a FixedReset 5.00%+417M500, that commenced trading 2015-10-2 after being announced 2015-9-24. The issue reset to 5.00% (the minimum rate) in 2020. The ticker changed to BN.PF.H in late 2022. The issue is tracked by HIMIPref™ and has been assigned to the FixedResets subindex.

Thanks to Assiduous Reader P_I for bringing this to my attention!

Update, 2025-11-26: As part of its announcement on the closing of 250-million par value BN.PF.M, Brookfield has announced:

Brookfield intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to redeem all of its outstanding Cumulative Class A Preference Shares, Series 44 (“Preferred Shares, Series 44”) (TSX: BN.PF.H) for cash on December 31, 2025. The redemption price for each share will be C$25.00. Holders of Preferred Shares, Series 44 of record as of December 15, 2025 will receive the previously declared quarterly dividend of C$0.3125 per share, payable on December 31, 2025.

Normal Course Issuer Bids in the preferred share marketplace are usually more noise than signal, but not all the time! BCE has announced (on 2025-11-6):

that the Toronto Stock Exchange (the “TSX”) has accepted a notice filed by BCE of its intention to renew its normal course issuer bid (“NCIB”) to purchase up to 10% of the public float of each series of BCE’s outstanding First Preferred Shares that are listed on the TSX (the “Preferred Shares”). The period of the NCIB will extend from November 11, 2025 to November 10, 2026, or an earlier date should BCE complete its purchases under the NCIB. BCE will pay the prevailing market price at the time of acquisition for any Preferred Shares purchased plus brokerage fees payable by BCE (except with respect to purchases made under an issuer bid exemption order, which will be at a discount to the prevailing market price), and all Preferred Shares acquired by BCE under the NCIB will be cancelled.

The actual number of Preferred Shares repurchased under the NCIB and the timing of such repurchases will be at BCE’s discretion and shall be subject to the limitations set out in the TSX Company Manual.
…
As of October 31, 2025, under its current normal course issuer bid that commenced on November 11, 2024 and will expire on November 10, 2025, and for which the company received approval from the TSX, BCE purchased, through the facilities of the TSX and alternative eligible trading systems, Preferred Shares as follows: [see below — JH]

So according to this,they spent just over $175-million. That’s significant!

BCE Inc. has announced:

BCE.PR.R is a FixedFloater that reset to 4.490% in 2010 with no conversion to RatchetRate. It reset to 4.13% in 2015, and to 3.018% effective 2020-12-1 with no conversion to its potential RatchetRate counterpart, BCE.PR.Q.

Update, 2025-11-21: As pointed out by Assiduous Reader skeptical111 in the comments, BCE has announced:

that none of its fixed rate Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series R (Series R Preferred Shares) will be converted into floating rate Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series Q (Series Q Preferred Shares) on December 1, 2025.

On October 17, 2025, BCE notified holders of Series R Preferred Shares that they could elect to convert their shares into Series Q Preferred Shares subject to the terms and conditions attached to those shares. Only 6,025 of BCE’s 7,115,900 Series R Preferred Shares were tendered for conversion on December 1, 2025 into Series Q Preferred Shares. As this would result in there being less than one million Series Q Preferred Shares outstanding, no Series R Preferred Shares will, as per the terms and conditions attached to those shares, be converted on December 1, 2025 into Series Q Preferred Shares. Shareholders who had elected to convert their Series R Preferred Shares will be receiving, by December 1, 2025, share certificates representing the number of Series R Preferred Shares tendered for conversion.

The Series R Preferred Shares will continue to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BCE.PR.R. The Series R Preferred Shares will pay on a quarterly basis, for the five-year period beginning on December 1, 2025, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of BCE, a fixed cash dividend based on an annual dividend rate of 4.733%.

ECN Capital Corp. has announced:

that it has entered into a definitive arrangement agreement dated November 13, 2025 (the “Arrangement Agreement”) to be acquired by a newly formed acquisition vehicle (the “Purchaser”), controlled by an investor group led by Warburg Pincus LLC (the “Purchaser Group”), pursuant to which the Purchaser will acquire (i) all of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company (the “Common Shares”) for C$3.10 per Common Share, in cash, (ii) all of the issued and outstanding cumulative 5-year minimum rate reset preferred shares, Series C of the Company (the “Series C Shares”) for C$26.00 per share, in cash (plus all accrued but unpaid dividends thereon); and (iii) all of the issued and outstanding mandatory convertible preferred shares, Series E of the Company (the “Series E Shares”), of which Champion Homes, Inc. (“Champion Homes”) is the sole owner, for C$3.10 per share, in cash (plus all accrued but unpaid dividends thereon) (the “Transaction”).
…
The price per Series C Share represents a premium of approximately 11% to the closing price on the TSX of the Series C Shares on November 12, 2025 and a premium of approximately 11% to the 10-day volume weighted average trading price per Series C Share as of that date, in addition to the payment of accrued and unpaid dividends.
…
The Transaction will be implemented by way of a statutory plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario). Implementation of the Transaction will be subject to, among other things, the receipt of the shareholder approvals described below, court approval and customary closing conditions, including the receipt of certain key regulatory approvals. The Transaction is not subject to any financing condition.

The Transaction is subject to the approval by (i) at least 66 2/3% of the votes cast by the Common Shareholders and Series E Shareholders present or represented by proxy at the Meeting, voting together as a single class; and (ii) if required, a simple majority of the votes cast by the Common Shareholders present or represented by proxy at the Meeting (excluding the Common Shares owned and/or controlled, by any shareholders required to be excluded under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (“MI 61-101”)). The acquisition of the Series C Shares is conditional upon (i) the approval of at least 66 2/3% of the votes cast by the Series C Shareholders present or represented by proxy at the Meeting and (ii) if required, a simple majority of the votes cast by the Series C Shareholders present or represented by Proxy at the Meeting (excluding votes of any Series C Shareholders required to be excluded under MI 61-101). Completion of the Arrangement is not conditional upon obtaining approval from the Series C Shareholders and if the requisite approvals are not obtained, the Series C Shares will remain outstanding following closing of the Transaction in accordance with their terms.

ECN.PR.C was issued as a FixedReset, 6.25%+519M625, that commenced trading 2017-5-25 after being announced 2017-5-15. It reset to 7.937% in 2022. It is tracked by HIMIPref™ but relegated to the Scraps subindex on credit concerns.

Thanks to Assiduous Reader John19 for bringing this to my attention!

Intact Financial Corporation has announced:

that it has closed its previously announced bought deal offering (the “Offering”) of Non-Cumulative Class A Shares, Series 13 (the “Series 13 Preferred Shares”) underwritten by a syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Capital Markets and National Bank Capital Markets, as joint bookrunners, together with, CIBC Capital Markets, TD Securities, Scotiabank and RBC Capital Markets, resulting in aggregate gross proceeds to Intact of $150 million. The net proceeds are expected to be used by Intact for general corporate purposes.

Each Series 13 Preferred Share entitles the holder thereof to receive quarterly non-cumulative preferential cash dividends, if, as and when declared by the Board of Directors, on the last day of March, June, September and December in each year at a rate equal to $0.34375 per share. The initial dividend, if declared, will be paid on March 31, 2026 and will be $0.5236 per share.

The Series 13 Preferred Shares will commence trading today on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol IFC.PR.M.

IFC.PR.M is a Straight Perpetual, 5.50%, annnounced 2025-11-6.

The issue traded 546,100 shares today on the Toronto Exchange (674,960 consolidated) in a range of 25.00-11 before closing at 25.02-06. IFC.PR.M will be tracked by HIMIPref™ and has been assigned to the PerpetualPremium subindex.

Vital statistics are: