PrefBlog

Sixty-Split Corp announced today :

that it has called 638,503 Preferred Shares for cash redemption on March 15, 2007 (in accordance with the Company’s Articles) representing approximately 41.578% of the outstanding Preferred Shares as a result of the special annual retraction of 1,277,422 Capital Shares by the holders thereof. The Preferred Shares shall be redeemed on a pro rata basis, so that each holder of Preferred Shares of record on March 14, 2007 will have approximately 41.578% of their Preferred Shares redeemed. The redemption price for the Preferred Shares will be $25.00 per share.
    Holders of Preferred Shares that are on record for the dividend but have been called for redemption will be entitled to receive dividends thereon which have been declared but remain unpaid up to but not including March 15, 2007.

I highlighted the possibility some time ago and warned again, but the price just stayed high. The issue closed today at 25.93-15, 10×3; dividends paid 3/15 will be $0.3563. So there’s a loss coming in two weeks of nearly $0.60 on nearly half the holdings. Ouch.

DBRS has announced:

DBRS has today placed all the long and short-term ratings of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC or the Bank) Under Review with Positive Implications. The Under Review with Positive Implications status reflects ongoing actions CIBC has taken to address DBRS’s concerns regarding capital levels and the Bank’s ability to manage reputation-related risk which had caused rating pressure in 2005.

DBRS’s preliminary view is that the Bank has raised capital ratios to levels comparable to peers as a result of growth in retained earnings, increase in the amount of preferred shares allowed to be included in Tier 1 capital and management of risk-weighted assets.

See Preferreds & Tier 1 Capital (Part 3) for a very brief discussion of CIBC’s Tier 1 capital in relation to its peers.

Meanwhile S&P said:

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today said it revised its outlook on Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and selected subsidiaries to stable from negative. At the same time, Standard & Poor’s affirmed all ratings on CIBC and its subsidiaries, including the ‘A+’ long-term counterparty credit rating on CIBC. (A full report on CIBC will be published on RatingsDirect following this media release.)

The affected issues are: CM.PR.A / CM.PR.C / CM.PR.D / CM.PR.E / CM.PR.G / CM.PR.H / CM.PR.I / CM.PR.J / CM.PR.P / CM.PR.R.