BCE Inc. has released the conversion notice for BCE.PR.A and a matching notice for BCE.PR.B.
These issues constitute a Strong Pair.
The effective date of the interconversion is 2012-9-1. The deadline for instructing the company to convert shares is 2012-8-22 – but note that brokers serving the public will probably have internal deadlines a day or two in advance of this. The new dividend rate on BCE.PR.A will be published 2012-8-9.
At the first conversion opportunity in 2007, about half the outstanding BCE.PR.A were conversted into BCE.PR.B. The remaining shares of BCE.PR.A have paid 4.80% since then. Prime was at 6.25% when the last conversion was effective … how times have changed!
These shares are trading at very nearly the same price … alas, there isn’t much of an arbitrage possibility here!
Hi James,
With respect to this conversion, do holders of bce.pr.a that convert to bec.pr.b forfeit their “accrued” dividend? (i.e. there is just a 1 to 1 conversion with no recognition for having held the bce.pr.a for a couple of months without receiving a dividend, while the bce.pr.b is pays monthly). I hope that’s clear.
Thanks.
The last dividend for BCE.PR.A is due to be paid September 1 and this is the payment for the entire period.
The ex-Dividend date was July 31, but ex-Dividend dates are a matter of administrative convenience, to give them time to cut the cheques.
[…] BCE.PR.A is interconvertible with BCE.PR.B on September 1, and notice of conversion is required to be with BCE by August 22, 2012. Note that brokerages and other custodians will have deadlines slightly in advance of this – so if contemplating conversion, find out your deadline immediately! The Notice of Conversion was discussed on PrefBlog. […]