Archive for the ‘Better Communication, Please!’ Category

ENB.PR.B : 8% Conversion To FloatingResets

Thursday, May 25th, 2017

In keeping with its policy of contempt for the preferred shareholders who provide a chunk of its financing, Enbridge has again decided not to publicize events related to its ENB.PR.B issue, its extension, reset and conversion privilege.

Assiduous Readers will recall that ENB.PR.B will reset to 3.415% effective 2017-6-1. It was issued as a 4.00%+240 FixedReset which commenced trading 2011-9-30 after being announced 2011-9-21.

An inquiry to Enbridge Investor Relations elicited the response:

Approximately 1.7 million Series B will be converted into Cs and those Cs will start to trade on the TSX on June 1.

It will be remembered that I recommended against conversion.

Market conditions with respect to FixedReset / FloatingReset equivalency have not changed significantly since my recommendation:

pairs_fr_170525
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ENB.PR.B To Reset At 3.415%

Friday, May 12th, 2017

Due to total lack of communication from Enbridge, it was necessary for me to write an eMail:

Subject: ENB.PR.B

I understand that this issue will reset on June 1, 2017.

What will be the dividend reset rate? Where may I find a copy of the news release?

Sincerely,

Enbridge’s Investor Relations department replied (emphasis added):

Thank you for your email and interest in Enbridge.

We are rolling both the Series B (ENB.PR.B) and Series J (ENB.PR.U) preferred shares.

The deadline for the registered shareholder, CDS & Co., to provide notice of exercise of the right to convert Series B Preference Shares into Series C Preference Shares is 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on May 17, 2017.
The annual dividend rate applicable to the Series B (ENB.PR.B) Preference Shares for the five-year period from and including June 1, 2017 to but excluding June 1, 2022 will be 3.415%, being equal to the 5-year Government of Canada bond yield determined as of May 2, 2017, plus 2.40%, as determined in accordance with the terms of the Series B Preference Shares.

The dividend rate applicable to the Series C Preference Shares for the 3-month floating rate period from and including June 1, 2017 to but excluding September 1, 2017 will be 0.744% (2.950% on an annualized basis), being equal to the sum of the three month Government of Canada treasury bills, plus 2.40%, on an actual/366 day count basis, as determined in accordance with the terms of the Series C Preference Shares (the “Floating Quarterly Dividend Rate”). The Floating Quarterly Dividend Rate will be reset every quarter and registered holders will be provided with notice thereof.

The deadline for the registered shareholder, CDS & Co., to provide notice of exercise of the right to convert Series J Preference Shares into Series K Preference Shares is 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on May 17, 2017.

The annual dividend rate applicable to the Series J Preference Shares (ENB.PR.U) for the five-year period from and including June 1, 2017 to but excluding June 1, 2022 will be 4.887%, being equal to the 5-year United States treasury bond yield determined as of May 2, 2017, plus 3.05%, as determined in accordance with the terms of the Series J Preference Shares.

The dividend rate applicable to the Series K Preference Shares for the 3-month floating rate period from and including June 1, 2017 to but excluding September 1, 2017 will be 0.978% (3.880% on an annualized basis), being equal to the sum of the three month United States Government treasury bills, plus 3.05%, on an actual/366 day count basis, as determined in accordance with the terms of the Series K Preference Shares (the “Floating Quarterly Dividend Rate”). The Floating Quarterly Dividend Rate will be reset every quarter and registered holders will be provided with notice thereof.

On May 4th, 2017 a notification was sent out by the CDS (Clearing and Depository Services Inc.) to brokerage firms for both the Series B (ENB.PR.B) and Series J (ENB.PR.U) via email, bulletin link or swift notification which outlined the reset terms of these preferred series.

Under the terms of the prospectus, we fulfilled our obligation to notify CDS at which point the information is distributed to participants. The CDS notification included the fixed and floating reset rates.

Kind Regards,

Note that the deadline to advise the company if you wish to convert holdings of ENB.PR.B is 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on May 17, 2017..

I will have post a recommendation regarding such a conversion on Friday May 12.

I consider it an absolute disgrace that Enbridge holds its preferred shareholders in such disdain that it refuses to issue a press release to advise them of the rate and deadlines. Virtually every other company with FixedResets outstanding does so as a matter of course.

FFH.PR.K : No Conversion to FloatingReset

Tuesday, April 4th, 2017

Fairfax could not be bothered to issue a press release to let its financers know what’s going on, but today I contacted their investor relations department and spoke to a man whose ghastly job is to speak to people like me.

Insufficient shares were tendered to allow the conversion to proceed, but the precise number tendered is some kind of Top Secret corporate intelligence. If the Russians were to be found out – or the Chinese! – the pillars of western capitalism would be imperilled.

Assiduous Readers will remember that I recommended against conversion after the reset to 4.671% for FFH.PR.K.

So FFH.PR.K is now a FixedReset, 4.671%+351. It is tracked by HIMIPref™ but is relegated to the Scraps sub-index on credit concerns.

BPO Has A Website!

Wednesday, March 1st, 2017

I have complained a few times recently (for instance, here and here) about the lack of internet presence of Brookfield Office Properties Inc., a subsidiary of Brookfield Property Partners L.P.; today, I actually did something about it and contacted Matthew Cherry, their Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications, asking about the location of their press releases.

He was kind enough to refer me to the proper page on http://www.bpoinvestor.com.

Great! So now we can look up press releases for BPO, as long as we remember the name of their website! The next step is to convince Brookfield to put links to this site on Brookfield.com in some kind of logical manner and then we’ll be cooking with gas!

BPO has the following preferred share issues outstanding: BPO.PR.A, BPO.PR.C, BPO.PR.E, BPO.PR.J, BPO.PR.K, BPO.PR.N, BPO.PR.P, BPO.PR.R, BPO.PR.S, BPO.PR.T, BPO.PR.W, BPO.PR.X and BPO.PR.Y.

FFH.PR.H Listed: 26% Conversion

Thursday, October 1st, 2015

Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited has announced:

 

That’s right, nothing regarding the conversion and listing of FFH.PR.H, which is the same stunt they pulled when FFH.PR.F was listed.

So, I am left to report that FFH.PR.G is a FixedReset, currently 3.318%+256. Its Strong Pair is FFH.PR.H, a FloatingReset paying three month bills +256bp, reset quarterly. Both issues will be tracked by HIMIPref™, both relegated to the Scraps index on credit concerns.

The Toronto Stock Exchange reports that there are 2,567,048 shares of FFH.PR.H outstanding and 7,432,952 of FFH.PR.G; since there were 10-million shares of FFH.PR.G originally issued, we can say that the conversion rate was 26% after my recommendation not to convert.

Vital statistics are:

FFH.PR.G FixedReset YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-30
Maturity Price : 13.74
Evaluated at bid price : 13.74
Bid-YTW : 6.11 %
FFH.PR.H FloatingReset YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-30
Maturity Price : 13.70
Evaluated at bid price : 13.70
Bid-YTW : 5.42 %

No shares of FFH.PR.H traded today (consolidated exchanges) and the closing quote was 13.70-23.00, so nothing about the pricing can be taken too seriously! However:

pairs_FR_150930
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The FFH.PR.G / FFH.PR.H pair implies an average three month bill rate over the next five years of +1.03%, so far above the average it is off the charts.

ALA.PR.A To Reset At 3.38%

Thursday, September 3rd, 2015

I have learned that ALA.PR.A will reset at 3.38%.

ALA.PR.A is a FixedReset with a spread of 266bp over five-year Canadas, which commenced trading August 19, 2010 after being announced August 10, 2010. The original coupon was 5.00%, so the reset rate of 3.38% represents a decline of 32%. Hey, by recent 40%+ standards, that looks good!

Holders have the option to convert into a FloatingReset, and this option must be exercised prior to 5pm, September 15 before vanishing until the next reset date in 2020. Recent market conditions have been highly unfavourable for FloatingResets and it is likely that I will recommend against conversion. However, conditions can change dramatically and rapidly and I will wait until September 10 to make a more formal recommendation.

Note that the September 15 notification date is for notification of the company, and brokers will generally have an internal deadline a day or two prior to this … so if you’re planning to wait until the last minute, contact your broker and find out precisely when the last minute will be!

I complained yesterday about the lack of information made available by the company and sent them an eMail. AltaGas’ Investor Relations department refused to answer my question directly and instead gave me contact information for a third party not employed by AltaGas, expressing the pious hope that he “may be able to assist.”

AltaGas’ Investor Relations department must be the most totally useless public company department on earth.

What Is The Reset Rate On ALA.PR.A?

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015

To my surprise and irritation, the reset rate on ALA.PR.A has not yet been announced.

The company’s preferred share page has a link to the Prospectus Supplement for the issue, but this link takes one to SEDAR, so I can’t provide a direct link to the document myself. The regulators are doing a fine job of making access to public documents inconvenient to the investor-scum elements of the public!

However, the relevant parts of the Supplement are:

“Initial Fixed Rate Period” means the period from and including the date of issue of the Series A Shares to, but excluding, September 30, 2015.

“Subsequent Fixed Rate Period” means, for the initial Subsequent Fixed Rate Period, the period from and including September 30, 2015 to, but excluding, September 30, 2020, and for each succeeding Subsequent Fixed Rate Period means the period from and including the day immediately following the last day of the immediately preceding Subsequent Fixed Rate Period to, but excluding, September 30 in the fifth year thereafter.

“Fixed Rate Calculation Date” means, for any Subsequent Fixed Rate Period, the 30th day prior to the first day of such Subsequent Fixed Rate Period.

On each Fixed Rate Calculation Date, AltaGas shall determine the Annual Fixed Dividend Rate for the ensuing Subsequent Fixed Rate Period. Each such determination shall, in the absence of manifest error, be final and binding upon AltaGas and upon all holders of Series A Shares. AltaGas shall, on each Fixed Rate Calculation Date, give written notice of the Annual Fixed Dividend Rate for the ensuing Subsequent Fixed Rate Period to the registered holders of the then outstanding Series A Shares.

The Series A Shares and Series B Shares will be issued in “book entry only” form and must be purchased or transferred through a participant in the CDS depository service (“CDS Participant”). AltaGas will cause a global certificate or certificates representing any newly issued Series A Shares or Series B Shares to be delivered to, and registered in the name of, CDS or its nominee.

So Altagas has fulfilled the letter of their obligation by sending a billet-doux to CDS, which is:

a wholly owned subsidiary of TMX Group Limited
(TMX Group)

which in turn is substantially owned by:

Each of CIBC World Markets Inc., National Bank Financial & Co. Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., and TD Securities Inc., either directly or through an affiliate, has agreed to maintain a specified minimum ownership interest in TMX Group for a period of five years from September 14, 2012. For the year ended September 14, 2013, each of these investors were required to own at least 6.25%, and for each of the four following years, each of these investors must own at least 5.625%, of our common shares outstanding as
at September 14, 2012″

Assiduous Readers will remember the July 4, 2012 report that the regulators had agreed to permit an extension of the banking oligopoly’s hegemony over the Canadian financial system in return for something the regulators consider very important: extra payments to the regulators.

So what it all boils down to is: investors are scum. If you want to know what the reset rate on ALA.PR.A is, your best bet is to ‘phone your friendly (and probably bank-owned) broker and, after listening to a pitch for GICs while you’re on hold for half an hour, ask your friendly Customer Service Rep if they wouldn’t mind telling you the reset rate on this issue, provided it doesn’t interfere with lunch or anything.

However, hope springs eternal and I have sent the following missive to AltaGas Investor Relations:

Sirs,

It is my understanding from the prospectus supplement that the dividend rate for ALA.PR.A for the period September 30, 2015, to September 29, 2020, has been determined.

What is the new dividend rate?

Will there be any kind of announcement or notification on your website?

Sincerely,

Jov Leon Frazer Preferred Equity Fund? What’s up?

Tuesday, May 26th, 2015

As most of you know, I report the returns of my competitors when I report the returns of Malachite Aggressive Preferred Fund; one of these competitors is Jov Leon Frazer Preferred Equity Fund.

I had problems in April, however – the Morningstar reporting page wasn’t updated and, in fact, the last price they had was dated 2015-4-17.

Similarly, the Globe & Mail reporting page has the last price dated 2015-4-17, although due to a hole in the space-time continuum, they report “Returns as at April 30, 2015”. Mind you, though, the index returns they report to this end-date look nothing like anything else I’ve seen to April 30, so I’ll deem it unreliable.

When in doubt, go to the horse’s mouth! The Jov Financial Solutions reporting page provides numbers to April 30, but they seem a little … suspicious. Like, for instance, the one-year return for the Class A units is reported as -11.00%, but the one-year return for the Class F units is reported as +1.96%. Now, we’re all familiar with high MERs and how they can be avoided by use of Class F units, but a difference of almost 13% over a one year period seems a little … extreme. Even for the Canadian Market.

It’s not just their web-server gone momentarily berserk. Here’s the PDF, which reports the same enormous difference. I’m considering having it framed.

Oddly, this PDF reports the same one year TXPR return to 2015-4-30 as the Globe does: -7.70%. Well, according to me and according to Blackrock, the one year return for TXPR to April 30 was -3.19%. I’m not showing their -7.70% one-year return anywhere in my records. The closest I get is -7.73% for the year ended 2010-12-31.

So I send an email to info@jovfunds.com asking them what’s going on:

Can you explain the performance reporting of the captioned fund?

The Morningstar page at http://cart.morningstar.ca/QuickTakes/fund/Performance/f_Perf.aspx?t=F000005I49&region=CAN&culture=en-CA appears to be no longer updated.

The Jov Financial Solutions page at http://jovian.transmissionmedia.ca/fundprofile_jov.aspx?f=JOV110 contains figures for returns which are so wildly different for different classes of fund units that I have great difficulty believing any of the numbers.

The Globe & Mail page at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/funds-and-etfs/funds/summary/?id=59829 reports figures which appear to have ceased being updated on April 17.

Where may I find performance reporting for the fund? If it is the Jov Financial Solutions page, please help me to understand how the reported figures for the different classes are so wildly different (e.g., 1-Year for Series A is reported as -11.00%, 1-Year for Series F is reported as +1.96%).

Sincerely,

Well, I got an answer surprisingly fast:

MailEnable: Message could not be delivered to some recipients.
The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

Recipient: [SMTP:info@jovfunds.com]
Reason: Remote SMTP Server Returned: 554 5.1.2 Recipient address rejected: User unknown

Huh! So, I go to SEDAR and look for documents from Jov Leon Frazer Preferred Equity Fund. The last filing was “Amended and restated final fund facts – English”, dated March 11, 2015. No luck there!

So let’s check the Leon Frazer website. Success! I found a mention that might go a long way towards explaining the mess!

The JOV Leon Frazer Dividend Fund, the JOV Leon Frazer Bond Fund and the JOV Leon Frazer Preferred Equity Fund are all available through JovFinancial Solutions Inc., an affiliate of Leon Frazer. Industrial Alliance has indicated that it intends to merge JovFinancial Solutions Inc. with IA Clarington Investments Inc. in early 2014.

So now let’s go to the IA Clarington Website and browse funds by Asset Class …. nothing! The word “preferred” is not found on this page.

So I’m confused. I’ve been in the business for nearly thirty years and I’m confused. God knows what Mom and Pop must think. If anybody can tell me a story about this fund, please let me know.

Update: Roger in the comments found the answer! The public parts of the fund were closed and folded into an IA Clarington Money-Market Fund. The private parts (!) continue as some kind of pooled fund for Leon Frazer clients.

JovFinancial Solutions Inc. (“JovFinancial”) and T.E. Investment Counsel Inc. (“TEIC” and together with JovFinancial, the “Managers”) are announcing a proposal to terminate certain series of Jov Leon Frazer Bond Fund, Jov Leon Frazer Dividend Fund and Jov Leon Frazer Preferred Equity Fund (the “Jov Leon Frazer Funds”) and Jov Prosperity Canadian Fixed Income Fund, Jov Prosperity Canadian Equity Fund, Jov Prosperity U.S. Equity Fund and Jov Prosperity International Equity Fund (the “Jov Prosperity Funds”) and, subject to regulatory approval, merge such terminating series with IA Clarington Money Market Fund. Managed accounts of Leon Frazer & Associates Inc. clients hold Series I units of the Jov Leon Frazer Funds, which will not be merged, and managed accounts of TEIC clients hold Series B and O units of the Jov Prosperity Funds, which will not be merged, and as a result such managed accounts will be unaffected by this merger.

Effective immediately, any Series A, F, O and T of the Jov Leon Frazer Funds are closed to new purchases. Series A, F and I of the Jov Prosperity Funds were closed to new purchases on January 6, 2012.

Subject to regulatory approval, the Managers propose that on or about January 23, 2015:
(a) Series A, F and O of the Jov Leon Frazer Funds will be merged with IA Clarington Money Market Fund, and securityholders thereof will receive units of Series A, F and O, respectively, of IA Clarington Money Market Fund on a dollar for dollar basis. Securityholders of Series T of Jov Leon Frazer Preferred Equity Fund will receive units of Series A of the IA Clarington Money Market Fund; and
(b) Series A, F and I of the Jov Prosperity Funds will be merged with IA Clarington Money Market Fund, and securityholders thereof will receive units of Series A, DF and I, respectively, of IA Clarington Money Market Fund on a dollar for dollar basis.

If regulatory approval for the mergers is not obtained, the affected series will be terminated.

It’s very surprising that this information is so obscure. Just a simple note and somewhat more explicit link on the fund’s web-page (which is linked from the JovFunds Products Page) would have saved a lot of aggravation. I will cheerfully admit that a draft of the press release quoted above is also linked on the products page … but not too obviously and Holy Smokes! If I find the fund name and click the word “Profile” right beside it, shouldn’t that be enough? And were they really so cheap that they had to shut down the “info@jovfunds.com” account, instead of putting in an auto-responder with a brief explanation?

Update, 2015-5-31: Actually, it appears that holders were cashed out:

JovFinancial Solutions Inc. and T.E. Investment Counsel Inc. Wednesday provided an update on their previously announced proposal to terminate certain series of several Jov Funds.

The affected funds are: Jov Leon Frazer Bond Fund; Jov Leon Frazer Dividend Fund; and Jov Leon Frazer Preferred Equity Fund (the Jov Leon Frazer Funds); and Jov Prosperity Canadian Fixed Income Fund; Jov Prosperity Canadian Equity Fund; Jov Prosperity U.S. Equity Fund; and Jov Prosperity International Equity Fund (the Jov Prosperity Funds).

Series A, F, O and T of the Jov Leon Frazer Funds were closed to new purchases on Oct. 23, 2014 and Series A, F and I of the Jov Prosperity Funds were closed to new purchases on Jan. 6, 2012.

On Oct. 23, 2014, the companies announced a proposal to merge the affected series with IA Clarington Money Market Fund on Jan. 23, 2015. However, the regulatory exemptions necessary to permit the issuance of units of the IA Clarington Money Market Fund have not been granted.

As a result, unitholders will receive cash proceeds on the termination of the affected series. In order to provide unitholders sufficient time to respond to this change, the companies have elected to defer the terminations until April 17.

Fortis Releases FTS.PR.H Conversion / Reset Details

Friday, May 8th, 2015

I complained earlier regarding the lack of communication regarding the extension and reset of FTS.PR.H.

An officer of Fortis has sent me a copy of the official notification to Computershare:

St. John’s, NL (April 28, 2015):

Effective April 28, 2015, Fortis Inc. (the “Corporation”) announced that it does not intend to exercise its right to redeem all or any part of the currently outstanding Cumulative Redeemable Five-Year Fixed Rate Reset First Preference Shares, Series H of the Corporation (the “Series H shares”) on June I, 2015.

There are currently 10,000,000 Series H shares outstanding.

Subject to certain conditions set out in the short form prospectus of the Corporation dated January 18, 2010 relating to the issuance of the Series H shares, the holders of the Series H shares have the right to convert all or part of their Series H shares, on a one-for-one basis, into Cumulative Redeemable Floating Rate First Preference Shares, Series I of the Corporation (the “Series I shares”) on June l, 2015 (the “Conversion Date”).

On such date, holders who do not exercise their right to convert their Series H shares into Series I shares will continue to hold their Series H shares.

The foregoing conversion right is subject to the following:
i. If the Corporation determines that there would be less than 1,000,000 Series I shares outstanding after the Conversion Date, then holders of Series H shares will not be entitled to convert their shares into Series I; and
ii. Alternatively, if the Corporation determines that there would remain outstanding less than 1,000,000 Series H shares after the Conversion Date, then all remaining Series H shares will automatically be converted into Series I shares on a one-for-one basis on the Conversion Date.

In either case, the Corporation will give written notice to that effect to holders of Series H shares no later than May 25, 2015.

The dividend rate applicable for the Series H shares for the five-year period from and including June 1, 2015 to but excluding June 1, 2020, and the dividend rate applicable to the Series I shares for the three-month period from and including June I, 2015 and ending on and including August 31, 2015, will be determined on May 4, 2015 and notice of such dividend rates shall be provided to the holders of the Series H shares on that day.

Beneficial owners of Series H shares who wish to exercise their conversion right, should communicate with their broker or other nominee to obtain instructions for exercising such right during the conversion period, which runs from May 4, 2015 until 5:00 p.m. (Eastern) on May 19, 2015.

Inquiries should be directed to Mr. Jim Spinney, Treasurer, Fortis at 709.737.2902.

Signed:
[signature]
Karl W. Smith
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

All that was provided regarding the reset was:

St. John’s, NL (May 4, 2015):

Fortis Inc. (the “Corporation”) hereby provides notice to the holders of its Cumulative Redeemable Five Year Fixed Rate Reset First Preference Shares, Series H of the Corporation (the “Series H shares”) of the following dividend rates, in each case payable if, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of the Corporation:

1. $0.15625 per Series H share, being the fixed dividend rate payable quarterly on the first day of’March, June, September and December of each year during the five-year period from and including June 1, 2015 to but excluding June 1, 2020; and

ii. $0.13125 per share on the Cumulative Redeemable Floating Rate First Preference Shares, Series I of the Corporation (the “Series I shares”), being the floating dividend rate applicable to the Series I shares for the 3-month period from and including June 1, 2015 and ending on and including August 31, 2015,

in each case determined in accordance with the corresponding rights, privileges, conditions and restrictions attached to the Series H shares and Series I shares, respectively, as a class, as set out in the short form prospectus of the Corporation dated January 18, 20 I 0 relating to the issuance of the Series H shares.

Inquiries should be directed to Mr. Jim Spinney, Treasurer, Fortis at 709.737.2902.

Signed:
[signature]
Karl W. Smith
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

The officer explained:

Fortis has provided the conversion notification as well as the new yields and notification deadlines to the official shareholders of Series H – that being CDS (Computershare). CDS confirmed that they have notified the brokers who in turn should notify the beneficial bondholders.

Well, that’s the good old book-based system for you! There’s only one registered shareholder – and as noted earlier, the prospectus states:

The Corporation will, on the Fixed Rate Calculation Date, give written notice of the Annual Fixed Dividend Rate for the ensuing Subsequent Fixed Rate Period to the registered holders of the then outstanding Series H First Preference Shares.

So, sure, the method they’ve chosen appears to be legal enough to my non-securities-lawyer eyes … but why do they do it this way? They are diligent enough to have a web page dedicated to their preferred shares, which includes links to the prospectuses … and that’s very good! That puts them a cut above most issuers. But why not take that one extra step and communicate with holders – and, more importantly, prospective holders – regarding details of the reset? BCE includes links to notices of this kind on their preferred share page – how difficult could it be to send a copy of notices of this nature to ‘the website guy’ who is already in charge of putting up the press releases?

So anyway, yeah, FTS.PR.H will reset at a dividend rate of 2.50% paid on par value, “a stunning 41% reduction in dividend from the original 4.25%” as reported earlier. FTS.PR.I will float at 145bp over three-month bills, reset quarterly. Holders of FTS.PR.H must notify the company through their broker and Computershare by 5:00 p.m. (Eastern) on May 19, 2015; but note that your broker’s internal deadline will be earlier than this; and also note that May 18 is the Victoria Day holiday in most of Canada and most brokers will be closed. So if you intend to convert, make sure you check with your broker regarding their internal deadlines!

I will post with my recommendation regarding whether or not to convert next week.

FTS.PR.H to Reset At 2.50%; Company Management Uncommunicative

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

As I noted on May 4:

Fortis still hasn’t announced a reset rate for FTS.PR.H yet, despite the fact that it must have been calculated:

“Fixed Rate Calculation Date” means, for any Subsequent Fixed Rate Period, the 30th day prior to the first day of such Subsequent Fixed Rate Period.

“Subsequent Fixed Rate Period” means, for the initial Subsequent Fixed Rate Period, the period commencing on June 1, 2015 to, but excluding, June 1, 2020 and, for each succeeding Subsequent Fixed Rate Period, the period commencing on the first day of June immediately following the end of the immediately preceding Subsequent Fixed Rate Period to, but excluding, June 1 in the fifth year thereafter.

The Annual Fixed Dividend Rate applicable to a Subsequent Fixed Rate Period will be determined by the Corporation on the Fixed Rate Calculation Date. Such determination will, in the absence of manifest error, be final and binding upon the Corporation and upon all holders of the Series H First Preference Shares. The Corporation will, on the Fixed Rate Calculation Date, give written notice of the Annual Fixed Dividend Rate for the ensuing Subsequent Fixed Rate Period to the registered holders of the then outstanding Series H First Preference Shares.

I assume this figure will be released tomorrow morning:

Fortis Inc. (“Fortis” or the “Corporation”) (TSX:FTS) will release its first quarter 2015 results on Tuesday, May 5, 2015. A teleconference and webcast will be held the same day at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern). Barry Perry, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fortis, and Karl Smith, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Fortis, will discuss the Corporation’s first quarter 2015 results.

Analysts, members of the media and other interested parties in North America are invited to participate by calling 1.877.223.4471. International participants may participate by calling 647.788.4922. Please dial in 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. No pass code is required.

Well, nothing was announced with the 15Q1 results and the company has yet to respond to two separate eMails I’ve sent, from which I conclude that Fortis management is arrogant shit.

However, as Assiduous Reader FletcherLynn points out in a comment, they have announced third quarter dividends:

$0.15625 per share on the First Preference Shares, Series “H” of the Corporation, payable on 1 September 2015 to the Shareholders of Record at the close of business on 19 August 2015, provided, for greater certainty, that if no such Series “H” shares are outstanding on such date as a result of the exercise by Shareholders of their right to convert Series “H” shares into Cumulative Redeemable Floating Rate First Preference Shares, Series “I” of the Corporation effective 1 June 2015 (the “Conversion Right”), no such dividend shall be payable.

5.$0.13125 per share on the First Preference Shares, Series “I” of the Corporation, payable on 1 September 2015 to the Shareholders of Record at the close of business on 19 August 2015, provided, for greater certainty, that if no such Series “I” shares are issued on 1 June 2015 pursuant to the Conversion Right, no such dividend shall be payable.

So $0.15625 per quarter for FTS.PR.H is $0.625 p.a., is 2.50% of par value which, given that FTS.PR.H resets at +145, as announced in January, 2010, means that GOC-5 must have been 1.05% on the Fixed Rate Calculation Date, which was 30 days prior to June 1, or May 2, which was a Saturday, which means that May 1 must have been used, for which I used 1.04% as the closing value for GOC-5.

In addition, the $0.13125 dividend for FTS.PR.I is $0.525 p.a., is 2.10% p.a., implying a 3-Month bill yield of 0.65%, which is reasonably close to the 0.64% I used on May 1 for the closing bill yield.

It will be noted that 2.50% on FTS.PR.H represents a stunning 41% reduction in dividend from the original 4.25%.

Since Fortis management is completely shitty and their investor relations department under a vow of silence, there is no information publicly available regarding conversion notification deadlines, but a little bird has given me information that the CDS notification deadline (the deadline for your broker to notify the Canadian Depository for Securities (which holds all the shares) is 5pm on May 19. Note that this is the Tuesday following the Victoria Day long weekend; since the market will be closed May 18, you probably won’t have much luck calling your broker the day before. So, while every brokerage will set its own internal deadline, I suggest Friday, May 15 is probably the last day they will take your instruction; although sometimes you can have them act on a best-efforts basis on the last day provided you grovel in a sufficiently entertaining fashion.

I will post in the middle of next week with my final recommendation, but at this point I will tentatively suggest that FTS.PR.I will trade lower than FTS.PR.H and hence those who really want the former issue will (probably!) be better off executing a trade in the market (assuming reasonable transaction costs.