Category: Data Changes

Brookfield has announced that the rate to be paid from Nov. 1, 2006 to October 31, 2011 on BAM.PR.G will be 4.35%, or $1.0875 per share per annum … something of a haircut from the 5.63% they’ve been paying for the last five years!

As previously noted, this issue is exchangeable into BAM.PR.E. The deadline for converting is Wednesday October 18.

BAM.PR.E closed 10/13 at 25.05-45; BAM.PR.G closed 10/13 at 25.00-15.

As noted in an earlier post, October 6 was the last day of trading in this issue … see RBC’s press release for more details.

 The security code for this issue was A45006 … the redemption price was $26.00 and there was an accrued dividend paid of $0.183836. October 6, 2006, was the last priced date in the database … October 10 is the first unpriced date.

Readers will be familiar with my earlier comments on this issue … price-wise, things worked out much as expected – the closing quotation was $24.50-55, 14×61. The volume was a surprise, however, with only 12,300 shares trading on its first day out, which can be interpreted in a number of ways.

 I suspect that the correct interpretation is simply that the issue got sold in large chunks to long term investors (e.g., Balanced and Dividend funds run by the big fundcos), who don’t care what price they pay, as long as they can put eight-figures “to work” on a single ticket – and probably all committed before the issue was even thought about! But who knows? We’ll just have to see how this thing looks going forward.

 I never did issue the press release I had been intending. After some thought, I decided that given the presence of such a close comparable as SLF.PR.C (which closed at $24.64-70, 9×70, on volume of 6,300) made the HIMIPref™ evaluation of the new issue as expensive somewhat less than startling news.

SLF.PR.D has been set up on HIMIPref™ and will be added to “PerpetualDiscount” index and prefInfo in the very near future. The Preissue Security Code was P50005; the permanent code is A48983.

The price is actually quite reasonable at 24.50-55 … Now that the Street has given Sun Life it’s $6-million gift (12-million shares, overpriced by about $0.50, according to the first day of trading, if nothing else), the issue is looking like a much more reasonable investment.

Brookfield has announced – somewhat quietly! I couldn’t find anything on their site and had to look at SEDAR! – that the Selected Percentage Rate for the upcoming reset will be 108%.

So commencing November 1, 2006, the dividend rate paid on BAM.PR.G will be 108% of the Canada 5-year yield as computed on October 11. The 5-years closed today at about 3.84%, so this implies a yield of about 4.15% on the BAM.PR.G (assuming no change in rates over the next two weeks), or about $1.0375 annually per share.

Horrible! Especially compared with the 5.63% (or $1.4075) they’ve been paying for the last five years!

According to Brookfield’s “Notice of Conversion Privilege” the Designated Percentage (which varies only in accordance with trading price, not by company fiat) of prime paid on the BAM.PR.E is 81%, or currently 4.86%.

 Well, pays yer money and takes yer chances. Going with ratchet-rates means taking a risk on the Designated Percentage AND taking a risk on Prime for the next five years. It’s a tough call, just like the BCE.PR.T / BCE.PR.S conversion that’s coming up … although, mind you, BCE’s fixed-rate offer is 112% of the five year yield.

Given that BAM.PR.G closed today at 25.12-32, 3×5 on volume of 2500 shares, I don’t think they’re much of an option … or, to be more explicit, if they’re the best option there is, holders are better off selling them, because a Pfd-2(low) (DBRS) credit on a perpetual paying $1.0375 (at least for the next five years) sure ain’t going to be trading above par for long!

And I just don’t like floaters, anyway, especially ratchet rates. Hard to analyze, hard to plan for, really, really hard to make any capital gains from. Given the current trading price, the percentage of prime will be declining in the near future … perhaps, eventually, to the same level as BCE.PR.S (which have the same credit rating, after all) and then be paying only 64% of prime.

So I’d say these thingies are a “sell” right now. I don’t like either alternative, not when I can get better than par by selling them now.

Hat-tip to Financial WebRing for bringing this to my attention!

Note added 2006-09-28: I have just received an eMail from a concerned user of www.prefInfo.com. The summary information regarding dividend rates for BAM.PR.G is stated as:

My correspondent went to the trouble of reading the prospectus and confirmed for himself that the BAM.PR.G do not, in and of themselves, change to floating rate.

These things are difficult to handle, particularly in the period when, as now, the upcoming reset rate is only “sort-of” known. For the “reset” side of every  Ratchet-Rate-Preferred-Pair, HIMIPref™ assumes that the rate paid on the resettable prefs (which in this case is the BAM.PR.G) will be so lousy that investors will be virtually forced into the “ratchet side” (in this case, the BAM.PR.E).

It’s a conservative assumption, but a difficult one to explain in a brief summary! I’ll put together some kind of post, essentially re-stating this point, and link to it from the appropriate cells on the prefinfo.com table … eventually!