Category: Better Communication, Please!

Better Communication, Please!

Bad Job, SunLife!

The last dividend paid on the SunLife preferreds (SLF.PR.A, SLF.PR.B, SLF.PR.C, SLF.PR.D & SLF.PR.E) had an ex-dividend date of November 17, 2008.

Therefore, it is reasonable to pencil in February 17, 2009 as the ex-dividend date for the current dividend. And therefore, I assert, it is reasonable to expect that the dividend will be declared by February 11, 2009, regardless of the actual details of record and payment date.

‘Nope!’ says SunLife. ‘Can’t be bothered!’

The current dividend has not yet been declared and there is nothing on SunLife’s Investor Relations page to indicate any kind of schedule.

SunLife releases their 4th Quarter Earnings tomorrow and I can only speculate that some Moronic Boomer Asshole has determined that it would be efficient to release dividend details at the same time.

There is no doubt in my mind regarding payment of the current dividend; I have guessed at:

  • Ex-Date 2/17
  • Record-Date 2/19
  • Pay-Day 3/31

but it’s only a guess.

Sunlife’s carelessness in leaving the declaration so late – with no indication of the dates that are anticipated – shows a contempt for its shareholders. Get with the programme, guys!

Update, 2009-2-12: SunLife has announced:

the following quarterly dividends on its Class A Non-Cumulative Preferred Shares payable on March 31, 2009 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 25, 2009: $0.296875 per Series 1 share; $0.30 per Series 2 share; $0.278125 per Series 3 share; $0.278125 per Series 4 share; and $0.28125 per Series 5 share.

Better Communication, Please!

STW.PR.A: Stealth Redemption Confirmed

The essence of the redemption noted by Assiduous Reader erikd has been confirmed:

STW.PR.A has been called at $10.2 + accrued for total of $10.3173913 per share. 33.8575% of preferred shares have been called. This is a good premium to last friday’s trading price.
…
source is bloomberg, under news of the capital shares
I grabbed the screen at work. It will trade ex-redemption on Dec 9th, and supposed to get redeemed on Dec 12th.

I have confirmed with investor relations at Middlefield that the size is at least approximately correct; the redemption price per the prospectus is indeed 10.20.

The closing quote on Dec 8 – the last cum-redemption day, according to erikd, and the day he posted his note – was 9.11-18, on volume of 9227 shares. Yesterday was 8.64-87 on 5,294 shares. Today was 8.80-26, 13×2 on no volume.

I don’t know when the information was posted on Bloomberg, but if I had sold shares prior to the ex-redemption date and after the posting, I’d be pretty upset. According to me, a sizable redemption at a premium of more than 10% to market price counts as material information. Nothing was on their website, and investor relations could not confirm or deny immediately.

Their investor relations representative emphasized that they were not in breach of regulatory requirements. That may well be the case (it is not my place to judge) but I will suggest that:

  • The redemption was material information.
  • Bloomberg is a paid service; advising Bloomberge does not (or should not) constitute public disclosure
  • Therefore – whatever the strict legalities might be – I consider this a case of selective disclosure
  • If Middlefield did indeed follow minimum regulatory standards, that’s not good enough. They should have more consideration for their investors’ interests than that.
  • Let’s see a press release next time!

I will also be most interested to learn whether Middlefield purchased preferred according to the issuer bid. I will suggest that, given that STW.PR.A has not closed above 9.60 in at least a month, it would have been in the best interests of the fund to have exercised this right to the maximum extent possible.

I have noted a previous STW.PR.A stealth redemption.

STW.PR.A is tracked by HIMIPref™ and is part of the InterestBearing subindex. Given the low asset coverage ratio, it will probably be downgraded at some point in the near future at which point it will be relegated to “Scraps”. It is also possible that reduced liquidity due to the reduced float will be a prior cause for relegation.

Better Communication, Please!

CU Inc. Issues Long Term Debs

CU Inc. has an issue trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, CIU.PR.A, now bid at 20.50 for a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.64% based on a limitMaturity; this is an interest-equivalent of 7.90% at a conversion factor of 1.4x. These are Series 1 Preferred. The company also has an approximately equal value of “Series Second Preferred” outstanding, all of which are held by the parent company.

Today they issued some 30-year debs at 5.58%.

Mainly I was interested in this because of the 232bp interest-equivalent spread between the prefs and the long debs, but there’s a little twist …

A grossly abbreviated statement of their liabilites is:

CIU Inc. Liabilities
Item Value
CAD Millions
Current Liabilities 250.6
Non-Current Non-Capital 229.6
Long-Term Debt 2,459.4
Series 1 Prefs 115.0
Series 2 Prefs 130.0
Equity 1,675.5
Total 4,860.1

According to the prospectus for CIU.PR.A:

In the event of the liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the Corporation, or other distribution of assets of the Corporation among its shareholders for the purpose of winding-up its affairs, the holders of the Series 1 Preferred Shares shall be entitled to receive the amount paid up on such shares together with all accrued and unpaid cumulative preferential dividends thereon and, if such liquidation, dissolution, winding-up or distribution is voluntary, a premium of $1.00 per share if such event commences prior to June 1, 2009, and, if such event commences thereafter, a premium equivalent to the premium payable on redemption if such shares were to be redeemed at the date of commencement of any such voluntary liquidation, dissolution, winding-up or distribution, before any amount shall be paid or any property or assets of the Corporation shall be distributed to the holders of any Class A non-voting shares or Class B common shares or other shares ranking junior to the Series 1 Preferred Shares. After payment to the holders of the Series 1 Preferred Shares of the amounts so payable to them, they shall not be entitled to share in any further distribution of the property or assets of the Corporation.

… which is not entirely satisfactory, because nowhere in the document is the seniority of the “Series Second Preferred Shares” clearly defined relative to the “Series 1 Preferred Shares”.

I have used their contact form to ask the question:

Are the CU Inc. Series 1 Preferred Shares junior, senior, or parri passu to the Series Second Preferred Shares?

Where may I find legal documentation of the relative status?

Update, 2008-5-27: I have received a note from Atco staff denying the existence of Series Second Preferred shares. Further inquiries are in progress.

Better Communication, Please!

BNA.PR.A BNA.PR.B & BNA.PR.C Dividends Not Yet Declared

I’m not very happy with the Directors of BAM Split Corp..

The last dividend on their preferred shares went ex on February 20. They have not yet declared a current dividend, according to the Toronto Stock Exchange. This follows last year’s fiasco with the first BNA.PR.C dividend, an eMail sent on the weekend (not answered) and a voice mail message left today (not answered).

The company is sitting on client money of about $1.7-billion. This inattention to detail isn’t good enough, guys.

Better Communication, Please!

FAL.PR.B Dividend Information

It’s time to complain about Xstrata’s investor relations again!

I’ve previously complained, but I’ve tried again. The following has been sent to Hanré Rossouw of Xstrata’s Investor Relations Department:

Dear Mr. Rossouw,

I am unable to find information regarding the current dividend for Xstrata Cda Ser 3 Pr, trading as FAL.PR.B on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

What is the record and pay date for this dividend?

Is this information somewhere on the xstrata.com website that I’ve missed? If not, are there plans to communicate this information freely to investors in the future?

Sincerely,
…

For the record, the ex-Date is 5/13, record 5/15, pay 6/2, amount $0.2863.

Update 2008-5-8: I have received a reply from Mr. Rossouw:

We “freely communicate” relevant information on the pref shares on the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com)

Attached is the relevant announcement published on 14 March 2008 that details the record and payment dates for the preferred shares.

Hah! Puts me in my place, doesn’t it, especially the quotation of “freely communicate”! He kindly attached a PDF, which I have uploaded.

I have replied:

Thank you for the information; it is most unusual for these public announcements to be performed solely through SEDAR and I neglected to check that source.

Are there any plans to post information of this nature on your website in future, or to disseminate such press releases through agencies that would be picked up by the TSX website (CNX MarketLink & Globeinvestor; see the TSX quotation page http://www.tsx.com/HttpController?GetPage=QuotesLookupPage&DetailedView=DetailedPrices
&Market=T&ref=quickquote&Language=en
&QuoteSymbol_1=fal.pr.b )?

I have checked SEDAR and there it is … Xstrata, Press Release, English, March 14.

Update #2, 2008-5-8: He has very kindly responded:

Thanks for the feedback – it might be a good idea to at least put the key preferred share data and the website and point to the SEDAR website for all relevant documents.

Good enough for me! We shall see what happens.

Better Communication, Please!

W.PR.J's Big Price Move

An Assiduous Reader has sent me the following question:

I noticed that this preferred has dropped in price relative to its peers. Would you know whether there is any material change that has happened with it (has it stopped paying its dividend)?

The question was presumably prompted by the 5%+ decline in W.PR.J yesterday.

Information on these issues is harder to come by than it really needs to be, something I have complained about in the past.

DBRS rates the issues as Pfd-2(low). Both issues are cumulative.

As non-financial perpetuals without a particularly large float, these issues can be somewhat volatile – they both made the January 08 Best Performers’ List, while W.PR.H made December 07’s Worst. W.PR.H was transfered to the PerpetualDiscount index in the October 07 Rebalancing.

There’s something odd about the notes for these issues in Duke Energy’s 10-K:

In connection with the Westcoast acquisition in 2002, Spectra Energy assumed preferred and preference shares at Westcoast and Union Gas. These preferred and preference shares at Westcoast and Union Gas totaled $225 million at both December 31, 2007 and 2006. Since these preferred and preference shares are redeemable at the option of holder, as well as Westcoast and Union Gas, these preferred and preference shares do not meet the definition of a mandatorily redeemable instrument under SFAS No. 150 “Accounting for Certain Financial Instruments with Characteristics of both Liabilities and Equity”. As such, these preferred and preference shares are considered contingently redeemable shares and are included in Minority Interests on the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

According to me, W.PR.H and W.PR.J are issues of 6-million shares each, total $300-million, and are perpetual – this is confirmed by the Westcoast Energy Annual Report available on SEDAR. I have sent the following message to Spectra’s Investor Relations Department:

I write regarding the preferred shares trading as W.PR.H and W.PR.J on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It is my understanding that Spectra pays the dividends on these shares via Westcoast.

(i) You do not appear to be publishing dividend information for these shares on your website – publication of record and payment dates would be very useful. Do you intend to publish this information in the future?

(ii) In your financials, I can find reference only to some preferred shares held to be “redeemable at the option of holder” to the amount of $225-million, whereas these two issues are perpetual and have a total book value of CAD 300-million. How are these obligations reported in your financials?

I have uploaded a couple of charts:

Yesterday’s price action appears to be within normal bounds. I had considered W.PR.J to be quite expensive … I now consider it to be a little bit cheap.

Better Communication, Please!

Sunlife Financial Dividend Not Yet Declared

The headline says it all! There’s nothing on their website and a VERY EXPENSIVE data inquiry to TSX Market Data returns no declarations in the last three months.

Data have been estimated as:

  • ExDate: 2008-2-19
  • Record Date 2008-2-21
  • Pay Date 2008-3-31

… which is consistent with both the last dividend (ex-date 11/19) and last year’s 1Q dividend (ex-date 2/19) but is still just a guess.

Sunlife directors! Get with the programme! Surely preferred share dividends can be declared a month in advance of the ex-date and posted on your website! Surely a notice of expected dividends, “if, as and when”, could be posted in your investor relations section!

Better Communication, Please!

BBD.PR.C / BBD.PR.D Dividends

Why is it that Bombardier updates its shareholder information dividend pages only after pay-date, instead of immediately after declaration date, the way a company might if, you know, it thought about what it was doing?

Memo to the Bombardier Board and Webmaster: when redesigning your Investor Relations section, please remember that while past dividend dates are of great interest to historians, your actual investors will be more interested in the current dividend and the specifics of its ex-date, record-date, pay-date and amount.

Anyway … the current BBD.PR.C / BBD.PR.D dividend has a record date of 10/19 and a pay-date of 10/31. You heard it here first.