PrefBlog

As I predicted last week, EPP.PR.A crashed on opening today.

There were only six, count ’em, six trades in the entire day, for a whopping volume of 7,300 shares, closing at 23.75-99, 5×50. Even BAM.PR.N’s opening day was better, which is really saying a mouthful.

Five Million Shares. Somebody’s lost $5-million. Glad it’s not me!

On a cheerier note, the issue does appear to have found a fair level. The curve price is $23.94:

Price due to base-rate :  23.30
Price due to short-term :  -0.44
Price due to long-term :   1.76
Price due to Interest Income :   0.00
Price to to Cumulative Dividends :   0.00
Price due to SplitShareCorp :   0.00
Price due to Retractibility :   0.00
Price due to Credit Spread (2) :   0.00
Price due to Liquidity :   0.83
Price due to Floating Rate :   0.00
Price due to Credit Spread (3) :  -1.71
Price due to error :   0.17
Price due to Credit Spread (High) :   0.03
Price due to Credit Spread (Low) :   0.00

Although the price is now estimated to be fair, I won’t be rushing to buy this one. I suspect the underwriters are stuck with a big pile of these and there will be a blow-out sale before the end of June … and why would I buy something at a price I think is “fair”, anyway?

Well, well, well! The boys at Quadravest, fresh from extending the term of DFN.PR.A, are proving they haven’t run out of ideas!

In a press release today, they announced:

The Company intends to declare a special capital gains dividend, payable partially in cash and partially in Class A Shares, to holders of Class A Shares of record on June 4, 2007, which dividend will be payable on the date the Preferred Shares are issued under the short form prospectus. The number of Class A Shares being issued as a result of this special dividend will be equal to the number of Preferred Shares expected to be issued in the offering.

This is not particularly good news, but it isn’t necessarily bad, either. The NAVPU as of May 15, 2007 was $31.95, implying that the preferred shares had an extremely good asset coverage ratio of almost 3.2:1 – which DBRS wasn’t really giving them a lot of credit for, since the rating hadn’t changed from its initial setting of Pfd-2 on the initial coverage ratio of about 2.4:1.

How much will coverage deteriorate? Well, from the prospectus:

No regular monthly dividends will be paid in any year on the Class A Shares so long as any dividends on the Preferred Shares are then in arrears or so long as the Net Asset Value per Unit is equal to or less than $15.00 (calculated as described under ‘‘Details of the Offering — Valuation of Assets’’). Additionally, no special year-end dividends will be paid if after payment of such a special dividend the Net Asset Value per Unit (calculated as described under ‘‘Details of the Offering — Valuation of Assets’’) would be less than $25.00.

So how bad will it be? I wouldn’t think that they’ll take the NAVPU down below $25 … but I do worry. They’re being rather coy about how they will be calculating the amount of the special dividend … and some of the more cynical souls among us might want to point out that the fund’s year end is November 30 … therefore the special dividend June 4 is not a year-end special dividend … therefore not restricted by the prospectus language.

In favour of the preferred shareholders is the idea that Quadravest has quite a nice little business going, packaging the flavour of the month into a split share corporation and flogging it through an established pipeline.  I wouldn’t think they would contemplate doing anything that would jeopardize that goose and its bonus-filled eggs. Additionally, it won’t take much more than a rounding error to get the issue size over $100-million, and anything that improves liquidity is all right by me. It should also be noted that FFN.PR.A also experienced a term extension, has a NAVPU of $28.03 as of May 15, but did not have such a press release issued today.

But, until the point is cleared up, I recommend that no purchases of DFN.PR.A be made. I wouldn’t recommend a sale of existing positions (based on dilution risk, anyway … obviously, if DFN.PR.A rockets in price for some reason a sale should be contemplated) either. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Update: The quote from the prospectus regarding restrictions on dividends paid to capital shareholders was taken from the Summary. In the Details, we find (emphasis added):

Although there can be no assurance that the Company will be able to pay dividends to holders of Class A Shares, the initial policy of the Company will be to endeavour to declare and pay regular monthly dividends, initially targeted to be $0.10 per month to yield a minimum of 8.0% per annum on the original issue price, to holders of Class A Shares plus, if any amounts remain available for the payment of dividends, a special year-end dividend of such amount as of the November Dividend Record Date in each year.

No regular monthly dividends will be paid on the Class A Shares in any month as long as any dividends on the Preferred Shares are then in arrears or so long as the Net Asset Value per Unit is equal to or less than $15.00 (calculated as described under ‘‘Details of the Offering — Valuation of Assets’’). Additionally, it is currently intended that no special year-end dividends will be paid if after payment of such a dividend the Net Asset Value per Unit (calculated as described under ‘‘Details of the Offering — Valuation of Assets’’) would be less than $25.00.

So … it looks like there are no restrictions at all on the size of this dividend, other than a hope that Quadravest will wish to keep that split-share pipeline throbbing (and remember that first, selling the prefs is rarely a problem, since they generally come with fat coupons; and that second, if the customers had any brains or memory at all, they wouldn’t be buying the capital units in the first place.

Fingers crossed!

Co-operators General Insurance has announced (via CCN Matthews) that:

it has decided to redeem all of its 4 million Series A Shares on July 2, 2007 (with an effective date of June 30, 2007). The redemption price for each Series A Share will be $25.00 plus declared, but unpaid dividends of $0.34375 per share. The redemption of the Series A Shares is subject to approval of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.

I’m glad of it! It may be just my bookkeeperish soul interfering with innovative finance, but the terms of this issue (paying “Greater of 90% of index and Flat Rate 5.5%”) were unique and hard to value as part of a homogeneous class. Sometimes, it was difficult even to determine dividend dates!

Update: I now observe that the PrefInfo description of this issue did not account for the once-every-five-years redemption at $25.00 – it only noted the at-all-other-times redemption at $25.50. My apologies – this has been corrected. The prospectus for this issue, dated May 29, 1997, is available through SEDAR.

Update 2007-6-21: Cooperators, with all their usual concern for precision, predictability and the convenience of those who lend them money has decided to change the redemption procedure, under the guise of a confirmation:

Co-operators General Insurance Company (“Co-operators General” or the “Company”) confirmed today the arrangements relating to the payment for the previously announced dividend on the Class E Preference Shares, Series A (the “Series A Series”) (TSX: CCS.PR.A) and the redemption of all of the Series A Shares. Notice of redemption was mailed to registered holders on May 31, 2007.

The dividend in the amount of $0.34375 per Series A Shares for the quarter ending June 30, 2007 was previously declared and will be payable on July 3, 2007 (with an effective date of June 30, 2007) to holders of record on June 1, 2007.

The redemption price of $25.00 per Series A Shares will be payable on July 3, 2007 (with an effective date of June 30, 2007) upon presentation of certificates and required letters of transmittal. The declared dividend of $0.34375 per Class A Share for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 will not be included in the redemption price as such dividend will be paid separately to holders of record on June 1, 2007 immediately prior to payment of the redemption price. The Company does not expect to declare any further dividends on the Series A Shares.

To me, that looks just a tiny little bit different from what was announced before … but you be the judge!

Following the S&P downgrade, the DBRS downgrade of Loblaw and the Weston Credit Watch Negative by DBRS, DBRS has announced that it:

today downgraded the long-term ratings of George Weston Limited (Weston or the Company). The Notes and Debentures have been downgraded to BBB (high), the Exchangeable Debentures to BBB and the Preferred Shares to Pfd-3 (high), all with a Stable trend. At the same time, DBRS has confirmed the short-term rating of Weston at R-1 (low), but revised the trend to Negative.

…

Although management of Loblaw and Weston are separate, and there is no cross-default or cross collateralization covenants on the respective debt, Weston’s ratings reflect the investment in Loblaw, as it is a significant portion of the group’s consolidated operations. Weston’s long-term rating has historically been notched lower to reflect Weston’s own financial profile and the implicit structural subordination, given Loblaw’s minority public float.

Weston’s rating also reflects the underlying, albeit lower, credit rating of the bakery business. For the past few years, the bakery operations have stabilized/improved enough to limit further declines in the long-term rating, leading to the Stable trend. As such, any further deterioration in Loblaw’s long-term rating would not necessarily affect the long-term rating of Weston – i.e., ratings could potentially be the same.

Weston has the following preferred issues trading on the TSX: WN.PR.A WN.PR.B WN.PR.C WN.PR.D & WN.PR.E. All except WN.PR.B are fixed-rate perpetual; WN.PR.B is retractible.