PrefBlog

Brookfield Office Properties Inc. has announced:

that after having taken into account all election notices following the March 16, 2017 conversion deadline for the Class AAA Preference Shares, Series P (the “Series P Shares”) (TSX: BPO.PR.P) tendered for conversion into Class AAA Preference Shares, Series Q (the “Series Q Shares”), the holders of Series P Shares are not entitled to convert their Series P Shares into Series Q Shares. There were 488,396 Series P Shares tendered for conversion, which is less than the 1,000,000 shares required to give effect to conversions into Series Q Shares.

The Series P Shares will pay on a quarterly basis, for the five-year period beginning on April 1, 2017, as and when declared by the board of directors of Brookfield, a fixed dividend based on an annual dividend rate of 4.161% per annum (C$0.260063 per share per quarter).

Assiduous Readers will remember that I recommended against conversion after the reset to 4.161% for BPO.PR.P.

So BPO.PR.P is now a FixedReset, 4.161%+300. It is tracked by HIMIPref™ but relegated to the Scraps index on credit concerns.

BCE Inc. has announced:

that none of its fixed-rate Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series AO (Series AO Preferred Shares) will be converted into floating-rate Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series AP (Series AP Preferred Shares) on March 31, 2017.

On March 1, 2017, BCE notified holders of Series AO Preferred Shares that they could elect to convert their shares into Series AP Preferred Shares subject to the terms and conditions attached to those shares. Only 104,631 of BCE’s 4,600,000 Series AO Preferred Shares were tendered for conversion on March 31, 2017 into Series AP Preferred Shares. As this would result in there being less than one million Series AP Preferred Shares outstanding, no Series AO Preferred Shares will, as per the terms and conditions attached to those shares, be converted on March 31, 2017 into Series AP Preferred Shares.

The Series AO Preferred Shares will continue to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BCE.PR.O. The Series AO Preferred Shares will pay on a quarterly basis, for the 5-year period beginning on March 31, 2017, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of BCE, a fixed quarterly cash dividend based on an annual dividend rate of 4.260%.

Assiduous Readers will remember that I recommended against conversion after the reset to 4.26% for BCE.PR.O.

DBRS has announced that it:

has today upgraded the rating on the Preferred Securities issued by Brookfield Soundvest Split Trust (the Trust) to Pfd-5 (high) from Pfd-5.

In March 2005, the Trust raised gross proceeds of $180 million by issuing 7.2 million Preferred Securities (at $10 each) and an equal number of Capital Units (at $15 each). On March 27, 2015, unitholders of the Trust voted to extend the term of the fund by five years. The new maturity is March 31, 2020.
…
Based on the latest Portfolio’s yield, the Preferred Securities distribution coverage ratio is approximately 0.4 times. The insufficient amount of Portfolio dividends to cover Preferred Security distributions is projected to create an average annual grind on the Portfolio of approximately 3.3% in the next three years.

As at March 2, 2017, the downside protection available to the Preferred Securities was approximately 17.4%, which represents a gain of about 10% compared to the downside protection amount recorded a year ago. The downside protection has exhibited relative stability in the past four months, settling in the high-teens figures. Nevertheless, it remains subject to volatility, as it depends on the value of underlying securities of the Portfolio. The amount of downside protection and projected grind until the expected end of the term warrant an upgrade of the rating on the Preferred Securities issued by the Trust to Pfd-5 (high).

Assiduous Readers will remember that BSD.PR.A adopted some pretty dubious tactics while getting their term extension, has awful performance and suspended redemptions during the Credit Crunch without giving a reason.

Canoe EIT Income Fund has announced:

that it has closed the previously announced offering of 4.80% Cumulative Redeemable Series 1 Preferred Units (the “Series 1 Preferred Units”). The Series 1 Preferred Units were offered to the public through a syndicate of underwriters led by Scotiabank and RBC Capital Markets which also included BMO Capital Markets, CIBC Capital Markets, National Bank Financial Inc., TD Securities Inc., Canaccord Genuity Corp., Industrial Alliance Securities Inc. and Manulife Securities Incorporated.

The Fund issued 4,900,000 Series 1 Preferred Units at a price of $25.00 per Series 1 Preferred Unit for gross proceeds of $122,500,000. The Fund has also granted the underwriters an option, exercisable at the offering price for a period of 30 days from today’s date, to purchase up to an additional 735,000 Series 1 Preferred Units to cover over-allotments, if any. Holders of the Series 1 Preferred Units will be entitled to fixed cumulative preferential cash distributions of $1.20 per Series 1 Preferred Unit per annum, as and when declared, which will accrue from the date of issue and will be payable quarterly on the 15th day of March, June, September and December in each year with the initial distribution, if declared, payable on June 15, 2017. The Series 1 Preferred Units are listed for trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol EIT.PR.A.

The proceeds from the Offering will be invested by the Fund in accordance with its investment objectives and strategies. The Offering is expected to ensure the sustainability of the Fund by increasing the earning capacity of the units. The Series 1 Preferred Units are rated Pfd – 2 (high) by Dominion Bond Rating Service Limited.

The Fund’s regular monthly distribution of $0.10 per unit for unitholders of EIT.UN units remains unchanged. The Fund has maintained the $0.10 per unit monthly distribution since August 2009, through varying market conditions.

The Fund’s annual voluntary redemption feature for unitholders of EIT.UN units remains unchanged. Once a date has been set for the 2017 annual redemption, the Fund will issue a news release with the details.

EIT.PR.A is a 4.80% Seven Year Retractible that was announced 2017-3-8 after marketting began 2017-2-22. It will be tracked by HIMIPref™ and has been assigned to the Split Share subindex.

Note that according to the prospectus, to which I am not permitted to link because Canadian Securities Administrators take the view that you are all stupid, filthy, ignorant investor scum and do not deserve the slightest consideration whatsoever. You will have to go to SEDAR and look for “Canoe EIT Income Fund Mar 8 2017 14:21:01 ET Final short form prospectus – English PDF 266 K”.

Distributions in any given period may consist of net income, net capital gains and/or returns of capital.

The issue traded 213,320 shares today in a range of 24.90-25 before closing at 25.25-30, 5×10. Vital statistics are:

EIT.PR.A is rated Pfd-2(high) by DBRS:

DBRS Limited (DBRS) has today finalized its provisional rating of Pfd-2 (high) on the Cumulative Redeemable Series 1 Preferred Units (the Series 1 Preferred Units) issued by Canoe EIT Income Fund (the Fund).

The Fund is a closed-end investment trust focused on a broad range of income-producing investments in various industries and geographic regions. The Fund can issue an unlimited number of capital units (the Units) and can also issue in-series Preferred Units up to a maximum aggregate amount equal to 25% of the Fund’s total assets after giving effect to the proposed offering of the Preferred Units. The Series 1 Preferred Units were issued at a price of $25.00 per Series 1 Preferred Unit. The Series 1 Preferred Units are retractable for cash at the option of the holder on or after March 15, 2024.

The Fund has a credit facility (the Credit Facility) with a Tier 1 Canadian bank, but is restricted by its Declaration of Trust from borrowing in excess of 20% of the Fund’s total assets at the time of borrowing, after giving effect to the borrowing. The Credit Facility is secured by all of the Fund’s present and after-acquired personal property, undertaking and assets as well as all proceeds thereof. Distributions on the Series 1 Preferred Units are restricted if a default or event of default occurs under the Credit Facility or if the outstanding amount borrowed exceeds the available credit at any time.

Net proceeds from the offering of the Series 1 Preferred Units, after deducting the fees and expenses incurred as a result of the offering, are expected to be invested by the Fund to grow its portfolio in accordance with its investment objectives and investment strategies.

The Series 1 Preferred Unit holders will be entitled to receive quarterly cumulative preferential cash distributions of $0.30 (or $1.20 annually), representing a 4.80% per annum return on the issue price of $25.00. The holders of the Units currently receive targeted monthly cash distributions amounting to $1.20 per annum. In addition, up to 10% of the aggregate outstanding Units may be redeemed at the option of the Unit holders each calendar year on a date determined by the Fund.

The risks relating to the Unit distributions and redemptions are partially mitigated by restrictions on distributions, purchases and redemptions in the Fund’s Declaration of Trust as the Fund cannot pay or declare payable any distribution amount to the Unitholders (other than amounts that are paid solely through the issuance of additional Units, which would not affect the downside protection, or annual redemption amounts at the option of the holders of Units as described above), purchase for cancellation or otherwise redeem the Units, unless and until the distribution entitlements of the Series 1 Preferred Units have been paid in full or moneys are set aside for such payment.

The Fund’s portfolio initially provides downside protection of approximately 84% to holders of the Series 1 Preferred Unit and an asset coverage of approximately 10.0 times (x). The Series 1 Preferred Unit distributions are expected to be mainly funded through income received from the income-generating securities in the Portfolio. The Fund may also engage in writing covered call options to supplement the income. The Series 1 Preferred Units dividend coverage is expected to be approximately 1.7x.

The Pfd-2 (high) rating assigned by DBRS is based on the level of downside protection available to holders of the Series 1 Preferred Units, the distribution coverage ratio and the diversification of the Fund’s portfolio. In addition, DBRS has taken into account the potential grind on the portfolio arising from (1) distributions to the Units and redemption rights, (2) potential foreign-exchange risk because some investments in foreign currencies are not hedged and (3) the fact that lenders under the Credit Facility have priority over the Fund’s assets up to the amount of credit outstanding. Considering the Credit Facility amount compared with the current total assets, DBRS does not view the latter risk to be significant.

Update, 2017-3-22: Canoe Financial has announced:

Canoe EIT Income Fund (the “Fund”) (TSX – EIT.UN, EIT.PR.A) announced today that the syndicate of underwriters for the offering (the “Offering”) of 4.80% Cumulative Redeemable Series 1 Preferred Units (the “Series 1 Preferred Units”) of the Fund has fully exercised its over-allotment option. As a result of the exercise of the over-allotment option, the Fund raised additional gross proceeds of $18,375,000 from the sale of 735,000 Series 1 Preferred Units. Inclusive of the over-allotment option, the Fund raised gross proceeds of $140,875,000 from the sale of 5,635,000 Series 1 Preferred Units. The Series 1 Preferred Units are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol EIT.PR.A.