PrefBlog

BCE Inc. has announced:

that it has closed its previously announced public offering of Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series AK (series AK preferred shares), by a syndicate of underwriters led by CIBC World Markets Inc., RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and Scotia Capital Inc. As a result of the underwriters exercising in full their option to purchase an additional 1,800,000 series AK preferred shares, BCE issued 13,800,000 series AK preferred shares for gross proceeds of $345 million. The series AK preferred shares will begin trading on the TSX today under the symbol BCE.PR.K.

The series AK preferred shares will pay on a quarterly basis (with the first quarterly dividend to be paid September 30, 2011), for the initial fixed rate period ending December 30, 2016, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of BCE, a fixed cash dividend based on an annual fixed dividend rate of 4.15%. The dividend rate will be reset on December 31, 2016 and every five years thereafter at a rate equal to the 5-year Government of Canada bond yield plus 1.88%. The series AK preferred shares will be redeemable by the issuer on December 31, 2016 and on December 31 every five years thereafter, in accordance with their terms.

Holders of the series AK preferred shares will have the right, at their option, to convert their shares into Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series AL, (series AL preferred shares) subject to certain conditions, on December 31, 2016 and on December 31 every five years thereafter. Holders of the series AL preferred shares will be entitled to receive quarterly floating adjustable cash dividends as and when declared by the Board of Directors of BCE, at a rate equal to the three-month Government of Canada Treasury Bill yield plus 1.88%.

The net proceeds of this offering will be used for general corporate purposes.

BCE.PR.K is a FixedReset, 4.15%+188, announced June 20. It is tracked by HIMIPref™, but has been relegated to the Scraps index on credit concerns.

BCE.PR.K traded 558,795 shares today in a range of 24.74-99 before closing at 24.98-99, 8×17. Vital statisics are:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 at 12:09 am 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.