PrefBlog

I was surprised at the hostile reception accorded BNA.PR.C, the new issue that settled today after being announced December 20.

It traded in a fairly narrow range, 24.70-85, on heavy volume of 798,550 shares. The closing quotation was 24.74-78, 10×10.

More later.

Much later, more: I’ve uploaded the Split-Share sub-Index Portfolio Evaluation. Interested readers should be able to tell with a glance at the “Yield-to-Worst” column (and a peek at the “Modified Duration – Yield to Worst” column) that I do have some basis for considering this issue undervalued!

Amendment to Quorum Requirements The Trust Agreement currently provides that quorum for any meeting of Unitholders called to consider a matter requiring the approval of Unitholders by an Ordinary Resolution is two or more Unitholders present in person or represented by proxy holding not less than ten percent (10%) of the Units then outstanding, and the quorum for any meeting of Unitholders called to consider a matter requiring the approval of Unitholders by an Extraordinary Resolution is two or more Unitholders present in person or represented by proxy holding not less than twenty five percent (25%) of the Units. In order to make it easier for quorum to be achieved with respect to any particular meeting, and thus reduce administrative costs associated with the necessity of holding adjourned meetings, Unitholders of Income & Growth Split will be asked to consider and, if deemed advisable, to pass resolutions decreasing the quorum requirement for any meeting called to consider a matter requiring the approval of Unitholders by either an Ordinary Resolution or an Extraordinary Resolution to one or more Unitholders present in person or represented by proxy holding not less than five percent (5%) of the Units then outstanding and to amend the adjournment requirements so that an adjourned meeting may be held at such time and place and on such date as may be fixed by the chairman of the meeting.

Well, we now know why they felt it advisable to change the quorum requirement! 

According to a press release on Canada Newswire: 

A quorum was not present at each of the meetings and as a result, the special meetings for these funds were adjourned to January 23, 2007 at the offices of Stikeman Elliott LLP, Boardroom 3, 51st Floor, 199 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario M5L1B9.

The merger, therefore, will have to wait … even after I went to the trouble of adding FIG.PR.A to the HIMIPref™ database!

As noted in the January 5, 2007, Commentary, the yieldToWorst on CL.PR.B has gone negative … again! This happened previously on November 29, 2006 and I suggested then – and I still suggest – that this issue is a prime candidate for redemption.

Great-West’s last issue, GWO.PR.I, was issued in mid-April 2006, is still trading heavily and is yielding 4.53% based on a limitMaturity and GWO (who own CL) may well decide that with all the money flying around during RRSP season, now is a good time to refinance.

I’ve uploaded a graph of yieldToWorst for the past year, along with another one of flatBidPrice.

CL.PR.B hasn’t been a particularly enthralling issue to own for the last year, as this data from the performanceBox shows:

The quarterly numbers do not compare well with the quarterly returns posted by Malachite Aggressive Preferred Fund:

Total return for the period 2005-12-30 to 2007-1-5 is 2.8266%