MAPF

MAPF Portfolio Composition : December 2007

There was a good level of trading in December, most of it intra-sector.

MAPF Sectoral Analysis 2007-12-31
HIMI Indices Sector Weighting YTW ModDur
Ratchet 0% N/A N/A
FixFloat 0% N/A N/A
Floater 0% N/A N/A
OpRet 0% N/A N/A
SplitShare 29% (-9) 6.82% 5.56
Interest Rearing 0% N/A N/A
PerpetualPremium 0% N/A N/A
PerpetualDiscount 64% (+2) 5.48% 14.70
Scraps 0% N/A N/A
Cash 6% (+6) 0.00% 0.00
Total 100% 5.53% 11.10
Totals will not add precisely due to rounding.
Bracketted figures represent change from November month-end.

The “total” reflects the un-leveraged total portfolio (i.e., cash is included in the portfolio calculations and is deemed to have a duration and yield of 0.00.). MAPF will often have relatively large cash balances, both credit and debit, to facilitate trading. Figures presented in the table have been rounded to the indicated precision.

Credit distribution is:

MAPF Credit Analysis 2007-12-31
DBRS Rating Weighting
Pfd-1 44.5% (+10.5)
Pfd-1(low) 13.0% (-4.0)
Pfd-2(high) 7.8% (+7.8)
Pfd-2 13.7% (-7.3)
Pfd-2(low) 15.1% (-11.9)
Cash 5.8% (+5.8)
Totals will not add precisely due to rounding.
Bracketted figures represent change from November month-end. 

The fund does not set any targets for overall credit quality; trades are executed one by one. Variances in overall credit will be constant as opportunistic trades are executed.
Liquidity Distribution is:

MAPF Liquidity Analysis 2007-12-31
Average Daily Trading Weighting
<$50,000 0.9% (-0.1)
$50,000 – $100,000 0.5% (+0.5)
$100,000 – $200,000 7.8% (-55.2)
$200,000 – $300,000 28.3% (+10.3)
>$300,000 56.6% (+38.6)
Cash 5.8% (+5.8)
Totals will not add precisely due to rounding.
Bracketted figures represent change from November month-end.

MAPF is, of course, Malachite Aggressive Preferred Fund, a “unit trust” managed by Hymas Investment Management Inc. Further information and links to performance, audited financials and subscription information are available on the fund’s web page. A “unit trust” is like a regular mutual fund, but is sold by offering memorandum rather than prospectus. This is cheaper, but means subscription is restricted to “accredited investors” (as defined by the Ontario Securities Commission) and those who subscribe for $150,000+. Fund past performances are not a guarantee of future performance. You can lose money investing in MAPF or any other fund.

The fund’s performance and the performance of the indices has already been discussed.

Update: Some doubting Thomases, unconvinced of the abject failure of the Efficient Market Hypothesis in characterizing the Canadian preferred share market, might object that outperformance this month is due simply to long duration in an up-month.

I attach a graph and an associated Regression Report plotting total return against Modified Duration (YTW) of issues in the HIMIPref™ Universe that are in the top three rating classes (by DBRS). It may be seen that although Specific Risk increases with MD-YTW, there does not appear to be any Systemic Risk associated with term … at least, not this month!

As a further illustration, I attach an evaluation of the December performances of the individual issues in the PerpetualDiscount index, sorted by performance and by issuer.

While classes will very often show a normal qualitative relationship amongst themselves, variance is generally very high compared to the average (in other words, there’s a lot of noise around each signal).

MAPF

MAPF Performance : December 2007

You know, sometimes everything works. 

Malachite Aggressive Preferred Fund has been valued for December, 2007, month-end. The unit value is $9.0070, after giving effect to a dividend distribution of $0.173192. Returns over various periods are:

MAPF Returns to December 31, 2007
One Month +4.50%
Three Months +0.34%
One Year -1.63%
Two Years (annualized) +2.54%
Three Years (annualized) +3.66%
Four Years (annualized) +6.01%
Five Years (annualized) +11.02%
Six Years (annualized) +9.31%

Returns assume reinvestment of dividends, and are shown after expenses but before fees. Past performance is not  a guarantee of future performance. You can lose money investing in Malachite Aggressive Preferred Fund or any other fund. For more information, see the fund’s main page.

The December returns reflect outperformance against CPD (which returned +1.14% on the month) and DPS.UN (estimated at +1.93%).

The quarterly performance includes October’s poor performance, which I have attributed to a move into perpetualDiscount issues that proved to be somewhat early. The move has now been amply rewarded, as volatility in December provided the setting for several profitable trades. The yields available on high quality preferred shares remain elevated, which is reflected in the current estimate of sustainable income.

Calculation of MAPF Sustainable Income Per Unit
Month NAVPU Portfolio
Average
YTW
Leverage
Divisor
Sustainable
Income
June, 2007 9.3114 5.16% 1.03 0.4665
September 9.1489 5.35% 0.98 0.4995
October 8.8084 5.71% 1.00 0.5030
November 8.7845 6.11% 1.00 0.5357
December, 2007 9.0070 5.53% 0.942 0.5288
NAVPU is shown after quarterly distributions. 

It was something of an interesting month, as early strength crumbled in the face of tax-loss selling; after the December 24 deadline for 2007 settlement passed the market rocketted upwards. Actually, many issues started to bounce back on the 24th – it was December 21 that the selling peaked.

One issuer that appeared to be particularly hard hit by tax loss selling was the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM), which announced on December 19 that:

Following Standard and Poor’s announcement today that it had reduced the credit rating of ACA Financial Guaranty Corp. from “A” to “CCC”, CIBC confirmed that ACA is a hedge counterparty to CIBC in respect of approximately U.S. $3.5 billion of its U.S. subprime real estate exposure.
    It is not known whether ACA will continue as a viable counterparty to CIBC. Although CIBC believes it is premature to predict the outcome, CIBC believes there is a reasonably high probability that it will incur a large charge in its financial results for the First Quarter ending January 31, 2008.

Well, I’m not going to say this news is meaningless to preferred shareholders. Credit Ratings Agencies are annoyed; due, I think, both the loss itself and the revelation that so many eggs were placed in the ACA basket. But. But! The loss will be borne by the common shareholders. That’s what common shareholders are good for, taking the first loss. While this is indeed meaningful to preferred shareholders, the market grossly over-reacted, and MAPF was able to scoop up a good position in two of CM’s perpetual issues – some of which was unwound prior to month end with both a chunky capital gain and a dividend.

There were many other trades, but the CM is the easiest to explain!

I consider 2007 to have been a very successful year for the fund. Although the fund lost 1.63% on the year, it outperformed the benchmark quite handsomely – for those who are seeking a long-term investment in preferred shares due to the various qualities of this asset class, outperformance in a down year is just as good as the same outperformance in an up year.

And down years are rare. Subscribers to Canadian Moneysaver will have seen my exposition of just how bad 2007 was for preferred shareholders (and my attempts to explain why) … cheapskates who don’t subscribe will just have to wait until I republish it after the black-out period is over.

Update, 2008-01-08: The main returns pages have been updated to reflect the BMO-CM 50 index returns: Monthly, Quarterly, Annually to Dec. 31 and Annualized to Dec. 31.

Index Construction / Reporting

Index Performance, December 2007

Performance of the HIMIPref™ Indices for December was:

Total Return
Index Performance
December 2007
Performance
4Q07
Ratchet +0.91%  -0.55%
FixFloat -0.88%  -0.68%
Floater -14.53%  -21.59%
OpRet +0.76%  +1.20%
SplitShare +1.08%  -1.53%
Interest -0.68%  +1.62%
PerpetualPremium +1.04%  -0.11%
PerpetualDiscount +2.63%  -2.33%
Funds (see below for calculations)
CPD +1.14%  -2.27%
DPS.UN +1.93%  -1.11%

The FloatingRate index was adversely affected by both of its constituents (BAM.PR.B & BAM.PR.K) performing very poorly during the month – in fact, these two issues were the two worst performers, by far, of all index-included issues in the HIMIPref™ universe. The issue removed from the “Floater” index at the November rebalancing, TOC.PR.B, returned -4.94% on the month.

Claymore has published dividend and NAV data for the CPD Exchange Traded Fund and I have derived the following table:

CPD Return, 1- & 3-month, to December 31
Date NAV Distribution Return for Sub-Period Monthly Return
September 28, 2007 18.59      
October 31, 2007 18.19   -2.15% -2.15%
November 30 17.97   -1.21% -1.21%
December 24 17.75 0.2219 +0.01% +1.14%
December 31, 2007 17.95   +1.13%
Quarterly Return -2.27%

The DPS.UN NAV for December 27 has been published, together with the distribution history, so we may calculated the December-ish returns for it:

DPS.UN NAV Return, November-ish 2007
Date NAV Distribution Return for period
November 28 $21.07 $0.00  
December 27, 2007 21.07 0.30 +1.42%
Adjustment for November stub-period -0.17%
Adjustment for December stub-period +0.67%
Estimated December Return +1.93%
CPD had a NAV of $17.94 on November 28 and $17.97 on November 30. The estimated November end-of-month stub period return for CPD was therefore +0.17%, which is subtracted from the DPS.UN total return when estimating the return for December.
CPD had a NAV of $17.83 on December 27 and $17.95 on December 31. The estimated December end-of-month stub period return for CPD was therefore +0.67%, which is added to the DPS.UN total return when estimating the return for December.

 

Now, to see the DPS.UN quarterly NAV approximate return, we refer to the calculations for October and November:

DPS.UN NAV Returns, three-month-ish to end-December-ish, 2007
October-ish -1.86%
November-ish -1.14%
December-ish +1.93%
Three-months-ish -1.11%

 

Issue Comments

Best & Worst Performing Issues : December, 2007

These are total returns, with dividends presumed to have been reinvested at the bid price on the ex-date. The list has been restricted to issues in the HIMIPref™ indices.

Issue Index DBRS Rating Monthly Performance Notes (“Now” means “December 31”)
BAM.PR.B Floater Pfd-2(low) -15.01% Hideous performance in November (-10.60%) is now followed up with even worse performance in December.
BAM.PR.K Floater Pfd-2(low) -14.29%  Another BAM issue that performed appallingly in November (-9.68%), although it is not clear to me whether the critical factor is “BAM” or “Floater”.
BSD.PR.A InterestBearing Pfd-2 -8.00% Asset coverage of just under 1.7:1 as of December 28, according to the company. Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 7.77% (mostly as interest) based on a bid of 9.09 and a hardMaturity 2015-3-31 at 10.00. Dividends on the Capital Stock have been reduced, which should help this issue’s asset coverage going forward. This issue has now fallen back from its superb performance (+5.94%) in November.
CM.PR.J PerpetualDiscount Pfd-1(low) -5.52% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.82% based on a bid of 19.37 and a limitMaturity.
W.PR.H PerpetualDiscount Pfd-2(low) -4.37% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 6.08% based on a bid of 22.61 and a limitMaturity.
PWF.PR.L PerpetualDiscount Pfd-1(low) +7.36% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.41% based on a bid of 23.92 and a limitMaturity.
POW.PR.D PerpetualDiscount Pfd-2(high) +7.93% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.36% based on a bid of 23.36 and a limitMaturity.
BAM.PR.N PerpetualDiscount Pfd-2(low) +8.60% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 6.38% based on a bid of 18.76 and a limitMaturity.
ELF.PR.F PerpetualDiscount Pfd-2(low) +8.64% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 6.46% based on a bid of 20.60 and a limitMaturity. This was one of November’s worst performers (-11.20%), so this improvement represents something of a bounce.
ELF.PR.G PerpetualDiscount Pfd-2(low) +6.21% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 6.21% based on a bid of 19.20 and a limitMaturity. Just as with ELF.PR.F, above, this performance represents a bounce from November’s return of -14.21%.
Market Action

December 31, 2007

Hurrah! 2007 is finally over!

Strong performance from the PerpetualDiscounts again, but all this is on relatively light volume. Santa brought me exactly what I asked for.

Happy New Year! Best Wishes for 2008!

Note that these indices are experimental; the absolute and relative daily values are expected to change in the final version. In this version, index values are based at 1,000.0 on 2006-6-30
Index Mean Current Yield (at bid) Mean YTW Mean Average Trading Value Mean Mod Dur (YTW) Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 5.19% 5.19% 73,469 15.15 2 0.0000% 1,059.2
Fixed-Floater 4.89% 5.15% 85,409 15.30 8 +0.1145% 1,026.3
Floater 5.82% 5.84% 139,591 14.13 2 +1.0369% 829.8
Op. Retract 4.86% 3.08% 81,377 3.53 16 +0.0657% 1,039.6
Split-Share 5.31% 5.51% 107,314 4.19 15 +0.3585% 1,029.6
Interest Bearing 6.37% 6.58% 61,709 3.44 4 -0.1262% 1,058.4
Perpetual-Premium 5.82% 4.94% 79,658 5.23 11 +0.2505% 1,018.6
Perpetual-Discount 5.51% 5.42% 375,952 14.29 55 +0.8340% 928.1
Major Price Changes
Issue Index Change Notes
BAM.PR.J OpRet -1.7686% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.15% based on a bid of 25.55 and a softMaturity 2018-3-30 at 25.00.
HSB.PR.C PerpetualDiscount +1.0725% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.44% based on a bid of 23.56 and a limitMaturity.
ELF.PR.F PerpetualDiscount +1.1291% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 6.46% based on a bid of 20.60 and a limitMaturity.
CIU.PR.A PerpetualDiscount +1.1302% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.66% based on a bid of 20.58 and a limitMaturity.
BMO.PR.J PerpetualDiscount +1.1478% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.39% based on a bid of 21.15 and a limitMaturity.
CM.PR.E PerpetualDiscount +1.2766% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.88% based on a bid of 23.80 and a limitMaturity.
BAM.PR.M PerpetualDiscount +1.3767% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 6.50% based on a bid of 18.41 and a limitMaturity.
BAM.PR.K Floater +1.4006%  
CM.PR.P PerpetualDiscount +1.9957% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.81% based on a bid of 23.51 and a limitMaturity.
CM.PR.D PerpetualDiscount +2.0366% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.85% based on a bid of 24.55 and a limitMaturity.
SLF.PR.B PerpetualDiscount +2.0947% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.38% based on a bid of 22.42 and a limitMaturity.
RY.PR.B PerpetualDiscount +2.1998% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.33% based on a bid of 22.30 and a limitMaturity.
ACO.PR.A OpRet +2.2684% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 3.64% based on a bid of 26.60 and a call 2008-12-31 at 26.00.
HSB.PR.D PerpetualDiscount +2.3903% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.33% based on a bid of 23.56 and a limitMaturity.
NA.PR.L PerpetualDiscount +2.4540% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.65% based on a bid of 21.71 and a limitMaturity.
POW.PR.D PerpetualDiscount +2.4561% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.36% based on a bid of 23.36 and a limitMaturity.
BNA.PR.C SplitShare +2.8037% Asset coverage of 3.7+:1 as of November 30, according to the company. Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 7.90% based on a bid of 18.70 and a hardMaturity 2019-1-10 at 25.00. Compare with BNA.PR.A (5.73% to 2010-9-30) and BNA.PR.B (7.42% to 2016-3-25).
RY.PR.G PerpetualDiscount +2.8352% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.33% based on a bid of 21.40 and a limitMaturity.
PWF.PR.L PerpetualDiscount +2.8375% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.41% based on a bid of 23.92 and a limitMaturity.
BAM.PR.N PerpetualDiscount +3.3609% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 6.38% based on a bid of 18.76 and a limitMaturity.
CM.PR.H PerpetualDiscount +3.70% Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.71% based on a bid of 21.04 and a limitMaturity.
BAM.PR.G FixFloat +4.2105%  
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Volume Notes
RY.PR.W PerpetualDiscount 46,910 RBC crossed 18,400 at 23.60. Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.26% based on a bid of 23.56 and a limitMaturity.
CM.PR.H PerpetualDiscount 19,190 Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.71% based on a bid of 21.04 and a limitMaturity.
RY.PR.D PerpetualDiscount 14,415 Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.38% based on a bid of 21.19 and a limitMaturity.
TD.PR.O PerpetualDiscount 13,195 Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.31% based on a bid of 23.18 and a limitMaturity.
CM.PR.I PerpetualDiscount 12,513 Now with a pre-tax bid-YTW of 5.77% based on a bid of 20.41 and a limitMaturity.

There were five other index-included $25.00-equivalent issues trading over 10,000 shares today.

HIMI Preferred Indices

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices : February 2005

All indices were assigned a value of 1000.0 as of December 31, 1993.

HIMI Index Values 2005-2-28
Index Closing Value (Total Return) Issues Mean Credit Quality Median YTW Median DTW Median Daily Trading Mean Current Yield
Ratchet 1,352.5 1 2.00 2.51% 21.0 131M 2.53%
FixedFloater 2,240.6 8 2.00 2.39% 19.4 73M 5.28%
Floater 1,994.5 5 2.00 -2.42% 0.10 53M 3.28%
OpRet 1,818.9 20 1.51 2.89% 3.5 94M 4.65%
SplitShare 1,855.8 15 1.93 3.82% 3.4 89M 5.01%
Interest-Bearing 2,237.8 8 2.00 4.01% 1.9 97M 6.51%
Perpetual-Premium 1,394.2 35 1.63 4.68% 4.6 106M 5.39%
Perpetual-Discount 1,573.1 2 1.00 4.87 15.7 13,061M 4.90%

Index Constitution, 2005-2-28, Pre-rebalancing

Index Constitution, 2005-2-28, Post-rebalancing

Market Action

December 28, 2007

Well, the same things that caused me to drastically foreshorten yesterday’s report are causing me to chop today’s report to the bone!

With any luck, 2008 will be a bit more consistent in terms of post lengths.

The S&P/TSX Preferred Share Index gained again today and, barring a catastrophic end to the trading year, will be up on the month. PerpetualDiscounts performed superbly, but remain below the recent peak level of 930.2 reached on December 11.

Note that these indices are experimental; the absolute and relative daily values are expected to change in the final version. In this version, index values are based at 1,000.0 on 2006-6-30
Index Mean Current Yield (at bid) Mean YTW Mean Average Trading Value Mean Mod Dur (YTW) Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 5.19% 5.17% 76,492 15.19 2 +0.0000% 1,059.2
Fixed-Floater 4.90% 5.13% 87,719 15.33 8 -0.1429% 1,025.1
Floater 5.88% 5.90% 143,995 14.05 2 +0.0640% 821.3
Op. Retract 4.87% 3.12% 84,029 3.30 16 -0.3452% 1,038.9
Split-Share 5.33% 5.56% 109,594 4.31 15 +0.1328% 1,025.9
Interest Bearing 6.36% 6.51% 62,942 3.45 4 +0.1805% 1,059.8
Perpetual-Premium 5.83% 5.16% 81,131 4.24 11 +0.0743% 1,016.1
Perpetual-Discount 5.55% 5.56% 383,987 14.53 55 +1.0465% 920.5
Issue Comments

IQW.PR.C : Conversion to Common Requested for Over Half of Issue

Quebecor World has announced:

that, on or prior to December 27, 2007, it received notices in respect of 3,975,663 of its 7,000,000 issued and outstanding Series 5 Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares (TSX: IQW.PR.C) (the “Series 5 Preferred Shares”) requesting conversion into the Company’s Subordinate Voting Shares.

In accordance with the provisions governing the Series 5 Preferred Shares, registered holders of such shares are entitled to convert all or any number of their Series 5 Preferred Shares into a number of Subordinate Voting Shares effective as of March 1, 2008 (the “First Conversion Date”), provided such holders gave notice of their intention to convert at least 65 days prior to the First Conversion Date. The next conversion date on which registered holders of the Series 5 Preferred Shares will be entitled to convert all or any number of such shares into Subordinate Voting Shares is June 1, 2008, and notices of conversion in respect thereof must be deposited with the Company’s transfer agent, Computershare Investor Services Inc., on or before March 27, 2008. The Series 5 Preferred Shares are convertible into that number of the Company’s Subordinate Voting Shares determined by dividing Cdn$25.00 together with all accrued and unpaid dividends on such shares up to February 29, 2008 by the greater of (i) Cdn$2.00 and (ii) 95% of the weighted average trading price of the Series 5 Preferred Shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange during the period of twenty trading days ending on February 26, 2008. Notwithstanding the notices of conversion received in respect of the Series 5 Preferred Shares, the Company retains the right under the provisions governing the Series 5 Preferred Shares to redeem all or any number of such Series 5 Preferred Shares in respect of which a notice of conversion was received. In the event Quebecor World were to decide to avail itself of its right to redeem all or any number of such Series 5 Preferred Shares in respect of which a notice of conversion was received, it would be required to provide notice to the holders of Series 5 Preferred Shares that submitted a notice of conversion by January 21, 2008.

Dividends on this issue have been suspended.

IQW SVSs closed today at $1.75, so assuming that the conversion is performed at the $2 minimum, four million (roughly) shares of IQW.PR.C will convert to fifty-million shares of IQW … since there are only about eighty-five-million of these shares outstanding, the converters will own over one-third of the company.

At the close of $15.75 for IQW.PR.C, the effective price of the new shares is $1.26, providing a nifty fifty-cent profit per IQW share to the converters (or, to put it another way, $21 worth of IQW stock – given current prices – will be received for every IQW.PR.C share.

One risk to the converters who are attempting to arbitrage is a rise in the price of the SVS; since the conversion price is 95% of the calculated price (if this is over $2), then if they have shorted now on a 12.5:1 basis for proceeds of $21, then:

Profit = proceeds of short sale – cost of IQW.PR.C – (number of shares actually received – 12.5)*price of shares

where “number of shares actually received” = 25 / (price of shares * 0.95)

so

Profit = proceeds of short sale – cost of IQW.PR.C – ((25 / (price of shares * 0.95)) – 12.5) * price of shares)

and ((25 / (price of shares * 0.95)) – 12.5) * price of shares)

= ((26.04 / price of shares) – 12.5) * price of shares

= 26.04 – 12.5*price of shares

So

Profit = proceeds of short sale – cost of IQW.PR.C + 26.04 – 12.5*price of shares

= 1.75*12.5 – 15.75 + 26.04 – 12.5*price of shares

= 21.875 – 15.75 + 26.04 – 12.5*price of shares

= 32.525 – 12.5*price of shares

Implying that the “risk arbitrage” will be profitable provided that, in the simplest scenario:

(i) shares are converted at 95% of the calculated market price of $2.60 or lower

(ii) the resultant short can be covered at that price (if necessary)

… assuming as well that IQW has been shorted at a ratio of 12.5:1 at a price of 1.75 and the IQW.PR.C was purchased at 15.75

Update, 2007-12-30: An Assiduous Reader who is in the unfortunate position of holding this issue, writes in and says:

The second one is the dreaded IQW.PR.C.  I read today on the RBC Action Direct web site that Quebecor has received notice to convert a large number of this outstanding preferred to subordinate voting shares (I’m assuming I should have done the same but I missed the March 1st date because I wasn’t aware I had to provide 65 days notice).  I don’t own a lot of it but I assume I should be doing the same as to preserve some capital before the
company goes bankrupt?  Thoughts on this?

Well, actually I don’t have a lot of thoughts on this, because IQW is junk and I don’t trade junk. I’m a fixed-income guy; junk requires equity-style analysis. That being said:

The case for conversion relies on current prices. At the current conversion rate of 12.5 IQW for 1 IQW.PR.C, the common is more valuable. Going by this, you would wait until the last possible moment before the next conversion date, examine prices at that time and request conversion if the terms are still favourable. Then, after having waited out the notice period and received your common, you would treat the IQW in the same manner as every other equity in your portfolio.

The case for retaining IQW.PR.C relies on their seniority. At the time the dividend was suspended, the company stated that it had cash on hand to make the payments, but was prevented from doing so by the Corporations Act, which prevents them from paying dividends when their shareholders’ equity is so low. They stated at that time that the annual meeting would rejig the balance sheet – through a few bookkeeping entries – to allow the resumption of dividends on their preferreds. If the company should ever pay any dividends ever again, the preferreds will be taken care of first! Should you keep the issue over the next notice date, you will retain the option to request conversion on the following date, and so on ad infinitum … or ad bankruptcy, anyway!

IQW is in a bad way. They’re not making any money, nobody seems to want their assets and they can’t find new financing. All I can really suggest is that you get their latest regulatory filings (SEDAR), perhaps discuss the company on Financial Webring Forum, develop a few potential scenarios for the company’s future … and make your own decision.

Market Action

December 27, 2007

Sorry, folks! What with month-end, year-end and a chess tournament, I am just plain out of time!

There was good performance in the market today, but volumes were markedly lower now that tax-loss-selling season is over. On a cheery note, the S&P/TSX Preferred Share Indexas proxied by CPD, is now in the black for the month!

I should be able to update tomorrow.

Update, 2007-12-28:

Note that these indices are experimental; the absolute and relative daily values are expected to change in the final version. In this version, index values are based at 1,000.0 on 2006-6-30
Index Mean Current Yield (at bid) Mean YTW Mean Average Trading Value Mean Mod Dur (YTW) Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 5.17% 5.15% 78,669 15.22 2 +0.2029% 1,059.2
Fixed-Floater 4.89% 5.11% 90,093 15.37 8 +0.3170% 1,026.6
Floater 5.88% 5.90% 145,103 14.05 2 1.6810% 820.7
Op. Retract 4.85% 2.58% 85,811 3.30 16 +0.0076% 1,042.5
Split-Share 5.34% 5.54% 112,024 4.30 15 -0.0050% 1,024.5
Interest Bearing 6.37% 6.61% 64,594 3.66 4 +0.6749% 1,057.9
Perpetual-Premium 5.83% 5.50% 83,206 4.27 11 +0.2301% 1,015.3
Perpetual-Discount 5.60% 5.64% 391,664 14.12 55 +0.4324% 910.9