PrefBlog

Bank of Montreal has announced (on October 28):

the applicable dividend rates for its Non-Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Class B Preferred Shares, Series 31 (the “Preferred Shares Series 31”) and Non-Cumulative Floating Rate Class B Preferred Shares, Series 32 (the “Preferred Shares Series 32”).

With respect to any Preferred Shares Series 31 that remain outstanding after November 25, 2019, commencing as of such date, holders thereof will be entitled to receive fixed rate non-cumulative preferential cash dividends on a quarterly basis, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of the Bank and subject to the provisions of the Bank Act (Canada). The dividend rate for the five-year period commencing on November 25, 2019, and ending on November 24, 2024, will be 3.851 per cent, being equal to the sum of the five-year Government of Canada bond yield as at October 28, 2019, plus 2.22 per cent, as determined in accordance with the terms of the Preferred Shares Series 31.

With respect to any Preferred Shares Series 32 that may be issued on November 25, 2019, holders thereof will be entitled to receive floating rate non-cumulative preferential cash dividends on a quarterly basis, calculated on the basis of the actual number of days elapsed in each quarterly floating rate period divided by 365, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of the Bank and subject to the provisions of the Bank Act (Canada). The dividend rate for the three-month period commencing on November 25, 2019, and ending on February 24, 2020, will be 3.856 per cent, being equal to the sum of the three-month Government of Canada Treasury bill yield as at October 28, 2019, plus 2.22 per cent, as determined in accordance with the terms of the Preferred Shares Series 32.

Beneficial owners of Preferred Shares Series 31 who wish to exercise their right of conversion should communicate as soon as possible with their broker or other nominee and ensure that they follow their instructions in order to ensure that they meet the deadline to exercise such right, which is 5:00 p.m.ET on November 12, 2019.

Conversion enquiries should be directed to BMO’s Registrar and Transfer Agent, Computershare Trust Company of Canada, at 1-800-340-5021.

BMO.PR.W is a FixedReset, 3.80%+222, that commenced trading 2014-7-30 after being announced 2014-7-22. Notice of extension was given 2019-9-27. It is tracked by HIMIPref™ and has been assigned to the FixedReset – Discount subindex.

The most logical way to analyze the question of whether or not to convert is through the theory of Preferred Pairs, for which a calculator is available. Briefly, a Strong Pair is defined as a pair of securities that can be interconverted in the future (e.g., BMO.PR.W and the FloatingReset that will exist if enough holders convert). Since they will be interconvertible on this future date, it may be assumed that they will be priced identically on this date (if they aren’t then holders will simply convert en masse to the higher-priced issue). And since they will be priced identically on a given date in the future, any current difference in price must be offset by expectations of an equal and opposite value of dividends to be received in the interim. And since the dividend rate on one element of the pair is both fixed and known, the implied average rate of the other, floating rate, instrument can be determined. Finally, we say, we may compare these average rates and take a view regarding the actual future course of that rate relative to the implied rate, which will provide us with guidance on which element of the pair is likely to outperform the other until the next interconversion date, at which time the process will be repeated.

We can show the break-even rates for each FixedReset / FloatingReset Strong Pair graphically by plotting the implied average 3-month bill rate against the next Exchange Date (which is the date to which the average will be calculated). Inspection of the graph and the overall average break-even rates for extant pairs will provide a guide for estimating the break-even rate for the pair now under consideration assuming, of course, that enough conversions occur so that the pair is in fact created.

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The market has lost enthusiasm for floating rate product; the implied rates until the next interconversion are generally well below the current 3-month bill rate as the averages for investment-grade and junk issues are at +0.46% and +0.67%, respectively, after removal of the outlying pair TRP.PR.A / TRP.PR.F from the investment grade universe and the pairs FFH.PR.C / FFH.PR.D and NPI.PR.A / NPI.PR.B from the junk group. Whatever might be the result of the next few Bank of Canada overnight rate decisions, I suggest that it is unlikely that the average rate over the next five years will be lower than current – but if you disagree, of course, you may interpret the data any way you like.

Since credit quality of each element of the pair is equal to the other element, it should not make any difference whether the pair examined is investment-grade or junk, although we might expect greater variation of implied rates between junk issues on grounds of lower liquidity, and this is just what we see.

If we plug in the current bid price of the BMO.PR.W FixedReset, we may construct the following table showing consistent prices for its soon-may-be-issued FloatingReset counterpart given a variety of Implied Breakeven yields consistent with issues currently trading:

Based on current market conditions, I suggest that the FloatingResets that will result from conversion are likely to trade below the price of their FixedReset counterparts, BMO.PR.W. Therefore, it seems likely that I will recommend that holders of BMO.PR.W continue to hold the issue and not to convert, but I will wait until it’s closer to the November 12 notification deadline before making a final pronouncement. I will note that once the FloatingResets commence trading (if, in fact, they do) it may be a good trade to swap one issue for the other in the market once both elements of each pair are trading and you can – hopefully – do it with a reasonably good take-out in price, rather than doing it through the company on a 1:1 basis. But that, of course, will depend on the prices at that time and your forecast for the path of policy rates over the next five years. There are no guarantees – my recommendation is based on the assumption that current market conditions with respect to the pairs will continue until the FloatingResets commence trading and that the relative pricing of the two new pairs will reflect these conditions.

TC Energy Corporation has announced:

that 173,386 of its 18,000,000 fixed rate Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series 9 (Series 9 Shares) were deposited for conversion on October 30, 2019 on a one-for-one basis into floating rate Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series 10 (Series 10 Shares).

As previously announced in our news release dated September 18, 2019, the conversions are subject to the conditions that: (i) if TC Energy determines that there would be less than one million Series 9 Shares outstanding after October 30, 2019, then all remaining Series 9 Shares will automatically be converted into Series 10 Shares on a one-for-one basis on October 30, 2019 and (ii) alternatively, if TC Energy determines that there would be less than one million Series 10 Shares outstanding after October 30, 2019, no Series 9 Shares will be converted into Series 10 Shares.

As the total number of Series 9 Shares deposited for conversion did not meet the threshold set out above, no Series 9 Shares will be converted into Series 10 Shares on October 30, 2019.

For more information on the terms of and risks associated with an investment in the Series 9 Shares and the Series 10 Shares, please see our prospectus supplement dated January 13, 2014 which is available on sedar.com or on our website.

It will be recalled that TRP.PR.E will reset at 3.762% effective October 30, 2019

TRP.PR.E is a FixedReset, 4.25%+235, that commenced trading 2014-1-20 after being announced 2014-1-13. Notice of extension was provided on 2019-9-18. TRP.PR.E will reset at 3.762% effective October 30, 2019. I recommended against conversion. The issue is tracked by HIMIPref™ and assigned to the FixedReset-Discount subindex.

Quadravest has announced:

Dividend 15 Split Corp. (the “Company”) is pleased to announce it will undertake an offering of Preferred Shares and Class A Shares of the Company.

The offering will be co-led by National Bank Financial Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc., Scotia Capital Inc. and RBC Capital Markets, and will also include TD Securities Inc., BMO Capital Markets, Canaccord Genuity Corp., Industrial Alliance Securities Inc., Echelon Wealth Partners, GMP Securities L.P., Raymond James Ltd., Desjardins Securities Inc., Mackie Research Capital Corporation, and Manulife Securities Incorporated.

The Preferred Shares will be offered at a price of $10.00 per Preferred Share to yield 5.25% and the Class A Shares will be offered at a price of $8.75 per Class A Share to yield 13.71%. The closing price on the TSX of each of the Preferred Shares and the Class A Shares on October 22, 2019 was $10.34 and $8.91, respectively.

Since inception of the Company, 186 consecutive dividends have been paid to both classes of shares. The aggregate dividends paid on the Preferred Shares have been $8.16 per share and the aggregate dividends paid on the Class A Shares have been $22.10 per share (including five special distributions of $0.25 per share, one special distribution of $0.50 per share and one special stock dividend of $1.75 per share), for a combined total of $30.26 per unit. All distributions to date have been made in tax advantage eligible Canadian dividends or capital gains dividends. The net proceeds of the offering will be used by the Company to invest in an actively managed, high quality portfolio consisting of 15 dividend yielding Canadian companies as follows:

Bank of Montreal	Enbridge Inc.	TELUS Corporation
The Bank of Nova Scotia	Manulife Financial Corp.	Thomson-Reuters Corporation Inc.
BCE Inc.	National Bank of Canada	The Toronto-Dominion Bank
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce	Royal Bank of Canada	TransAlta Corporation
CI Financial Corp.	Sun Life Financial Inc.	TC Energy

The Company’s investment objectives are:
Preferred Shares:
i. to provide holders of the Preferred Shares with fixed, cumulative preferential monthly cash dividends in the amount of 5.25% annually (5.50% effective December 1, 2019); and
ii. on or about the termination date, currently December 1, 2024 (subject to further 5 year extensions thereafter and it has been extended in the past), to pay the holders of the Preferred Shares $10.00 per Preferred Share.

Class A Shares:
i. to provide holders of the Class A Shares with regular monthly cash dividends currently targeted to be $0.10 per share; and
ii. on or about the termination date, currently December 1, 2024 (subject to further 5 year extensions thereafter and it has been extended in the past) to pay holders of Class A Shares at least the original issue price of those shares.

The sales period of this overnight offering will end at 9:00 a.m. EST on October 24, 2019. The offering is expected to close on or about October 31, 2019 and is subject to certain closing conditions including approval by the TSX.

So Whole Units are being offered for $10 + $8.75 = $18.75 and the NAVPU as of October 15 was 17.76, for a premium of 5.6%. What a great business this is!

DFN.PR.A was first traded 2004-3-16 as a 5.25% Split Share scheduled to mature 2009-12-1. A Special Resolution was proposed in April 2007 to extend term to 2014-12-1 with an unchanged dividend. The proposal was approved and shareholders had a wild ride during the Credit Crunch. There was another term extension approved in June 2013 with the dividend remaining unchanged. The fund then swallowed up CGQ & CGQ.E as well as STQ / STQ.E. The extension to 2024 was announced in February, 2019 and the dividend rate for the extension is 5.50%.

Update, 2019-10-26: They did well:

Dividend 15 Split Corp. (the “Company”) is pleased to announce it has completed the overnight marketing of up to 3,627,000 Preferred Shares and up to 3,627,000 Class A Shares of the Company. Total proceeds of the offering are expected to be approximately $68,006,250.