PrefBlog

Manulife Financial Corporation has announced:

a Canadian public offering of Non-cumulative Rate Reset Class 1 Shares Series 9 (“Series 9 Preferred Shares”). Manulife will issue 10 million Series 9 Preferred Shares priced at $25 per share to raise gross proceeds of $250 million. The offering will be underwritten by a syndicate of investment dealers co-led by Scotiabank, CIBC and RBC Capital Markets and is anticipated to qualify as Tier 1 capital for Manulife. The expected closing date for the offering is May 24, 2012. Manulife intends to file a prospectus supplement to its September 3, 2010 base shelf prospectus in respect of this issue.

Holders of the Series 9 Preferred Shares will be entitled to receive a non-cumulative quarterly fixed dividend yielding 4.40% annually, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of Manulife, for the initial period ending September 19, 2017. Thereafter, the dividend rate will be reset every five years at a rate equal to the 5-year Government of Canada bond yield plus 2.86%.

Holders of Series 9 Preferred Shares will have the right, at their option, to convert their shares into Non-cumulative Rate Reset Class 1 Shares Series 10 (“Series 10 Preferred Shares”), subject to certain conditions, on September 19, 2017 and on September 19 every five years thereafter. Holders of the Series 10 Preferred Shares will be entitled to receive non-cumulative quarterly floating dividends, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of Manulife, at a rate equal to the three-month Government of Canada Treasury Bill yield plus 2.86%.

Manulife intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for investments in subsidiaries to partially fund the proposed redemption of Manulife Financial Capital Trust securities (“MaCS”) on June 30, 2012.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 at 12:22 pm and is filed under New Issues. 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.