The consortium, known as Maple Group, wants to buy TMX for $3.8-billion. It also wants to buy privately-held Alpha, TMX’s biggest competitor in the stock market business in Canada, then combine Alpha and TMX into an entity that would be home to more than 80 per cent of all share trading in Canada.
However, the parties are nowhere close on a value for Alpha, according to people familiar with the situation. Maple is offering something in the range of $100-million to $200-million, while Alpha is looking for something in the range of $450-million to $600-million, the people said. The expectation is that the parties will likely have to go to binding arbitration to set a price.
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Should regulators block the Alpha deal, Maple has said it will drop plans to buy TMX. On the other side, if TMX thinks Maple is paying too much for Alpha, TMX can back out of the deal to merge with Maple.What’s more, the Alpha situation is complicated by an interlocking web of conflicts of interest.
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Another Alpha shareholder, Bank of Montreal, is not a member of Maple but it is advising TMX on its plan to merge with Maple
DBRS downgraded Spain to AA(low) Trend Negative.
BSD.PR.A was confirmed at Pfd-4(low) by DBRS:
Despite a deterioration in the Portfolio metrics since the previous rating review, specifically with respect to the Preferred Security downside protection (currently at 23.9%, down from 30.6% since December 31, 2010) and dividend yield, DBRS remains comfortable with the current assessment of the Portfolio and the confirmation of the Pfd-4 (low) rating. DBRS will continue to monitor the performance of Brookfield Soundvest Split Trust to determine the required level of downside protection for the assigned rating, and take appropriate action as needed.
The redemption date for the Preferred Securities is March 31, 2015.
Due to collywobbles at TMX DataLinx, the preferred share report has been prepared using Yahoo! data again.
It was a good day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts winning 14bp, FixedResets up 6bp and DeemedRetractible gaining 8bp. Volatility was muted, although Floaters bounced back from yesterday’s debacle. Volume was low.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 2.6447 % | 2,073.1 |
| FixedFloater | 4.87 % | 4.61 % | 34,493 | 17.10 | 1 | -0.3067 % | 3,163.2 |
| Floater | 3.20 % | 3.52 % | 66,235 | 18.39 | 3 | 2.6447 % | 2,238.4 |
| OpRet | 4.90 % | 1.51 % | 59,645 | 1.43 | 6 | -0.2107 % | 2,477.6 |
| SplitShare | 5.81 % | 6.60 % | 60,371 | 5.12 | 3 | -0.3659 % | 2,526.4 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.2107 % | 2,265.5 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.51 % | 2.97 % | 94,394 | 0.87 | 18 | 0.0011 % | 2,161.0 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.23 % | 5.19 % | 105,346 | 15.06 | 12 | 0.1415 % | 2,311.4 |
| FixedReset | 5.10 % | 3.06 % | 225,975 | 2.50 | 64 | 0.0564 % | 2,341.1 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.04 % | 4.30 % | 196,960 | 3.39 | 46 | 0.0819 % | 2,228.2 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| BAM.PR.O | OpRet | -1.11 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Option Certainty Maturity Date : 2013-06-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.76 Bid-YTW : 3.62 % |
| BAM.PR.B | Floater | 1.14 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-12-08 Maturity Price : 15.07 Evaluated at bid price : 15.07 Bid-YTW : 3.52 % |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | 2.52 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-12-08 Maturity Price : 19.50 Evaluated at bid price : 19.50 Bid-YTW : 2.71 % |
| BAM.PR.K | Floater | 4.40 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-12-08 Maturity Price : 14.72 Evaluated at bid price : 14.72 Bid-YTW : 3.61 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| ENB.PR.D | FixedReset | 177,355 | Recent new issue. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-12-08 Maturity Price : 23.15 Evaluated at bid price : 25.16 Bid-YTW : 3.66 % |
| CM.PR.E | Perpetual-Premium | 146,788 | TD bought 10,000 from Nesbitt at 25.25; Scotia crossed 25,000 at the same price. RBC crossed two blocks of 25,000 each at the same price. TD closed off by crossing 35,000 at the same price again. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-10-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.25 Bid-YTW : 5.13 % |
| CM.PR.D | Perpetual-Premium | 97,980 | Desjardins crossed 30,000 at 25.69; Scotia crossed blocks of 30,000 and 25,000 at the same price. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-01-07 Maturity Price : 25.25 Evaluated at bid price : 25.67 Bid-YTW : -7.12 % |
| BMO.PR.H | Deemed-Retractible | 92,200 | National crossed 90,000 at 26.15. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-02-25 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.08 Bid-YTW : 1.86 % |
| RY.PR.P | FixedReset | 62,685 | TD crossed blocks of 25,000 and 29,800 at 27.00. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-02-24 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.93 Bid-YTW : 2.76 % |
| RY.PR.X | FixedReset | 43,550 | RBC crossed blocks of 24,500 and 14,700, both at 27.20. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-08-24 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.20 Bid-YTW : 2.97 % |
| There were 26 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| ELF.PR.G | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 21.26 – 21.93 Spot Rate : 0.6700 Average : 0.5559 YTW SCENARIO |
| RY.PR.H | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 26.75 – 27.10 Spot Rate : 0.3500 Average : 0.2577 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PR.O | OpRet | Quote: 25.76 – 26.10 Spot Rate : 0.3400 Average : 0.2523 YTW SCENARIO |
| FTS.PR.E | OpRet | Quote: 27.00 – 27.42 Spot Rate : 0.4200 Average : 0.3325 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PR.G | FixedFloater | Quote: 19.50 – 20.00 Spot Rate : 0.5000 Average : 0.4233 YTW SCENARIO |
| RY.PR.I | FixedReset | Quote: 26.05 – 26.25 Spot Rate : 0.2000 Average : 0.1324 YTW SCENARIO |