PrefBlog

Brookfield Office Properties Inc., a subsidiary of Brookfield Property Partners L.P., has announced:

that it intends to: … Redeem all 5,909,250 of its outstanding Class AAA Preference Shares, Series K (TSX: BPO.PR.K) (the “Series K Shares”), all of which are beneficially held by CDS & Co., as nominee of CDS Clearing and Depositary Services Inc., for cash on March 31, 2017. The redemption price for each such share will be C$25.00 plus accrued and unpaid dividends thereon (which as of March 31, 2017 will be C$0), representing a total redemption price of C$25.00.

Notices of Redemption for both series have been sent to CDS & Co. Payment of the redemption price will be made on or after March 31, 2017 through the facilities of CDS & Co. to … all beneficial holders of the Series K Shares.

BPO.PR.K is a 5.20% Retractible, issued 2004-10-22. It became retractible for shares on 2016-12-31. There was a partial exchange of BPO.PR.K for BPS.PR.C in 2014; BPS is Brookfield Property Split Corp.

So anyway, now we know what the company meant in its press release announcing the issue currently trading as BPO.PR.E. Good catch by Assiduous Reader mbarbon in highlighting their sentence:

The net proceeds of the issue will be used by Brookfield Office Properties for general corporate purposes which may include the redemption of existing preferred shares.

Brookfield Office Properties Inc., a subsidiary of Brookfield Property Partners L.P., has announced:

that it intends to:

• •Redeem 4,760,750 of its outstanding Class AAA Preference Shares, Series J (TSX: BPO.PR.J) (the “Called Series J Shares”), all of which are beneficially held by CDS & Co., as nominee of CDS Clearing and Depositary Services Inc., for cash on March 31, 2017. The redemption price for each such share will be C$25.00 plus accrued and unpaid dividends thereon (which as of March 31, 2017 will be C$0), representing a total redemption price of C$25.00. The Called Series J Shares will be redeemed on a “pro rata” basis, so that each holder of Class AAA Preference Shares, Series J will have 62.9267290063042% of their Class AAA Preference Shares, Series J redeemed. The pro rata call will be based upon participants’ holdings at the close of business on March 29, 2017.
• …

…
Notices of Redemption for both series have been sent to CDS & Co. Payment of the redemption price will be made on or after March 31, 2017 through the facilities of CDS & Co. to all beneficial holders of the Called Series J Shares …

Gotta love the 15 significant figures quoted as the proportion to be redeemed!

BPO.PR.J is a 5.00% Retractible, issued 2004-4-30. It became retractible for shares on 2014-12-31. There was a partial exchange of BPO.PR.J for BPS.PR.B in 2014; BPS is Brookfield Property Split Corp.

So anyway, now we know what the company meant in its press release announcing the issue currently trading as BPO.PR.E. Good catch by Assiduous Reader mbarbon in highlighting their sentence:

The net proceeds of the issue will be used by Brookfield Office Properties for general corporate purposes which may include the redemption of existing preferred shares.

Enbridge Inc. has announced:

the completion today of the previously announced stock-for-stock merger transaction (the Transaction) to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Spectra Energy Corp (NYSE:SE) (Spectra Energy).

This led Standard & Poor’s to announce:

• •On Feb. 27, 2017, Enbridge Inc. announced the completion of its merger with Spectra Energy Corp. in a share-exchange transaction.
• •With the merger’s completion, Spectra subsidiary Westcoast Energy Inc. will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Enbridge Inc.
• •We view Westcoast as a core subsidiary of Enbridge, so we are raising our ratings on Westcoast, including our long-term corporate credit rating to ‘BBB+’ from ‘BBB’.
• •We removed the ratings from CreditWatch, where they were placed with positive implications Sept. 6, 2016.
• •The stable outlook on Westcoast reflects the outlook on ultimate parent Enbridge.

…
S&P Global Ratings today said it raised its ratings on Westcoast Energy Inc., including its long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on the company to ‘BBB+’ from ‘BBB’. S&P Global Ratings removed the ratings from CreditWatch, where they were placed with positive implications Sept. 6, 2016. The outlook is stable.

Enbridge Inc. has announced its merger with Spectra Energy Corp., under which Spectra and all its subsidiaries, including Westcoast, will merge with Enbridge at the closing of this share-exchange transaction.
…
The stable outlook on Westcoast reflects the outlook on parent Enbridge,
because we view Westcoast to be a core subsidiary under our criteria, so have
linked the ratings and outlooks on the two.

The stable outlook on Enbridge reflects our view that the transaction with Spectra will not result in material asset dispositions that do not repay debt, or changes in proposed financing for the combined capital program that increase the proportion of debt. In addition, we expect that the planned capital program will occur on time and budget, and that the financing plans will maintain adjusted funds from operations (AFFO)-to-debt at the low end of the significant financial risk profile category at about 14%.

The new S&P rating for the Westcoast preferreds, W.PR.H, W.PR.J, W.PR.K and W.PR.M, is now P-2(low), up a notch (but an important notch!) from P-3(high).

DBRS commented on the merger:

DBRS continues to believe that the merger does not have any impact on the credit quality of Spectra and its DBRS-rated subsidiaries as no changes are currently contemplated to Spectra, its subsidiaries and counterparties, as a result of the Transaction. As a result, the stand-alone credit profiles of Spectra and its DBRS-rated subsidiaries remain unchanged.

With respect to Enbridge, DBRS confirmed all ratings:

DBRS Limited (DBRS) has today confirmed the following ratings of Enbridge Inc. (ENB) and removed them from Under Review with Developing Implications where they were placed on September 6, 2016. The trends are Stable:

— ENB, Issuer Rating of BBB (high)
— ENB, Medium-Term Notes & Unsecured Debentures rated BBB (high)
— ENB, Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Shares rated Pfd-3 (high)
— ENB, Commercial Paper rated R-2 (high)
…
With respect to financial risk profile, DBRS expects ENB to meet its key target metrics of 15% funds from operations (FFO) to debt and five times debt-to-EBITDA, likely in late 2018 or early 2019. DBRS notes the combined entity’s substantial medium-term capex program and consequently expects near-term pressure on ENB’s credit metrics to continue. DBRS expects the recovery in key credit metrics (on both consolidated and non-consolidated bases) at the combined entity to be faster than previously expected from ENB on a stand-alone basis. This expectation is consistent with a number of key DBRS assumptions, including the migration of the combined entity’s common dividend payout ratio toward the low end of the 50% to 60% range over the medium term, the achievement of expected run-rate synergies and estimated tax savings, and that there is no increase in structural subordination at the ENB level from currently contemplated levels.

The Stable trends incorporate DBRS’s expectation that any incremental investments in new projects will be consistent with maintaining a strong overall business risk profile and medium-term improvement in key credit metrics. Changes to any of these and other key assumptions would cause DBRS to revisit the current ratings and/or trends.