PrefBlog

BCE has mailed BCE.PR.H Conversion Notice:

Holders of BCE Inc. Series AH Preferred Shares have the right to convert all or part of their shares, effective on May 1, 2011, on a one-for-one basis into Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series AG of BCE Inc. (the “Series AG Preferred Shares”).
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Registered holders electing to convert all or part of their Series AH Preferred Shares into Series AG Preferred Shares must complete and sign the conversion panel on the back of their Series AH Preferred Share certificate and deliver it, at the latest by 5:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on April 21, 2011, to one of the following addresses…

BCE.PR.H is the ratchet-rate preferred:

As of May 1, 2011, the Series AH Preferred Shares will pay a monthly floating dividend based on a dividend rate that will fluctuate over time between 50% and 100% of the Prime rate (“Prime”) for each month computed in accordance with the articles of BCE Inc. Accordingly, from May 1, 2011, the holders of Series AH Preferred Shares will continue to be entitled to receive floating adjustable cash dividends, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of BCE Inc., to be paid on the twelfth day of each month, commencing with the month of June 2011. The dividend rate will be adjusted upwards or downwards on a monthly basis by an Adjustment Factor (as described below) whenever the Calculated Trading Price, being the market price of the Series AH Preferred Shares computed in accordance with the articles of BCE Inc., is $24.875 or less or $25.125 or more, respectively.

Last night’s close was 23.00-24; it has been paying 100% of Prime for quite some time now.

There is also a conversion notice for BCE.PR.G:

Holders of BCE Inc. Series AG Preferred Shares have the right to convert all or part of their shares, effective on May 1, 2011, on a one-for-one basis into Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series AH of BCE Inc. (the “Series AH Preferred Shares”).
…
Registered holders electing to convert all or part of their Series AG Preferred Shares into Series AH Preferred Shares must complete and sign the conversion panel on the back of their Series AG Preferred Share certificate and deliver it, at the latest by 5:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on April 21, 2011, to one of the following addresses…
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As of May 1, 2011, the Series AG Preferred Shares, should they remain outstanding, will pay, on a quarterly basis, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of BCE Inc., a fixed cash dividend for the following five years that will be determined by BCE Inc. on April 6, 2011 but which shall not be less than 80% of the five-year Government of Canada Yield (as defined in BCE Inc.’s articles) compounded semi-annually and computed on April 6, 2011 by two investment dealers appointed by BCE Inc.. The annual dividend rate applicable to the Series AG Preferred Shares will be published on April 8, 2011 in the national edition of The Globe and Mail, the Montreal Gazette and La Presse and will be posted on BCE Inc.’s website at www.bce.ca.

BCE.PR.G closed last night at 23.13-28. It currently pays 4.35% of par.

It’s too early to tell yet which of the two issues will be better as of May 1, but I’ll keep you posted!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Issue Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.