Statistics Canada has revised estimated productivity growth substantially downwards:
The latest revisions mean the Canada-U.S. gap is now wider – 0.8 percentage points per year from 1981 to 2012, up from 0.7 per cent.
Fortunately, this is not expected to affect milkfare, subsidies of pulp mills, Ontario’s solar energy programme or regulation.
In a startling development, common shareholders are still allowed to vote on corporate business:
In Telus’s case, the company is up against Mason Capital, which owns almost one-fifth of the company’s voting stock. Mason has also sold short millions of [non-voting] shares, leaving it a very slim net long interest. Mason is using the votes on the shares it owns to fight Telus’s plan to consolidate the two classes of stock into a single class on a one-for-one basis. Mason wants a ratio that favours the voting stock.
Telus argues that Mason has no real interest in the overall health of the company, making Mason an empty voter. Mason, of course, disagrees. It has on its side one of the people who coined the term, who points to the fact that Mason has an economic interest in the share collapse’s success or failure.
The Court of Appeal for British Columbia ruled Friday that “there is no indication that it [Mason] is violating any laws, nor is there any statutory provision that would allow the court to intervene on broad equitable grounds. To the extent that cases of ‘empty voting’ are subverting the goals of shareholder democracy, the remedy must lie in legislative and regulatory change.”
I can’t understand why any common shareholder would vote in favour of this, diluting their vote with no compensation and I quite agree that Mason cannot logically be described as an empty voter in this instance.
To my mind, a much more serious problem is owners of common who also have a long position in the non-voting shares. In the bond world, this is known as debt decoupling, where as bondholder you vote for a bad deal so that your Credit Default Swaps will pay more.
It was a negative day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualPremiums losing 8bp, FixedResets off 2bp and DeemedRetractibles down 7bp. Volatility picked up, with Floaters jumping up and insurance-related issues getting hit …. but it was not the world’s biggest deal. 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 | 0.8795 % | 2,456.0 |
| FixedFloater | 4.31 % | 3.64 % | 35,092 | 18.10 | 1 | 0.0454 % | 3,729.7 |
| Floater | 2.99 % | 3.00 % | 65,581 | 19.74 | 3 | 0.8795 % | 2,651.9 |
| OpRet | 4.65 % | 2.96 % | 63,732 | 0.66 | 4 | -0.3916 % | 2,554.6 |
| SplitShare | 5.44 % | 4.99 % | 72,800 | 4.51 | 3 | -0.1190 % | 2,819.4 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.3916 % | 2,335.9 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.30 % | 1.90 % | 88,194 | 0.36 | 27 | -0.0849 % | 2,301.7 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.03 % | 4.93 % | 46,740 | 15.48 | 4 | -0.1335 % | 2,574.0 |
| FixedReset | 4.98 % | 3.02 % | 182,365 | 3.79 | 73 | -0.0191 % | 2,437.3 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 4.94 % | 3.54 % | 119,415 | 0.83 | 47 | -0.0740 % | 2,379.5 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| IAG.PR.A | Deemed-Retractible | -1.88 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.04 Bid-YTW : 5.18 % |
| PWF.PR.M | FixedReset | -1.11 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.82 Bid-YTW : 3.20 % |
| MFC.PR.G | FixedReset | -1.09 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2016-12-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.30 Bid-YTW : 4.19 % |
| POW.PR.D | Perpetual-Premium | -1.06 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-10-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.13 Bid-YTW : 4.76 % |
| FTS.PR.E | OpRet | -1.00 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-06-01 Maturity Price : 25.75 Evaluated at bid price : 26.60 Bid-YTW : 0.43 % |
| BAM.PR.C | Floater | 1.09 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-10-15 Maturity Price : 17.59 Evaluated at bid price : 17.59 Bid-YTW : 3.00 % |
| BAM.PR.K | Floater | 1.09 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-10-15 Maturity Price : 17.59 Evaluated at bid price : 17.59 Bid-YTW : 3.00 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| CM.PR.M | FixedReset | 148,840 | Scotia crossed 51,000 at 26.70; RBC crossed blocks of 63,700 and 20,000 at the same price. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-07-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.70 Bid-YTW : 2.47 % |
| ENB.PR.P | FixedReset | 77,340 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-10-15 Maturity Price : 23.19 Evaluated at bid price : 25.31 Bid-YTW : 3.72 % |
| GWO.PR.R | Deemed-Retractible | 64,860 | Recent new issue. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.99 Bid-YTW : 4.84 % |
| CM.PR.K | FixedReset | 53,100 | RBC crossed 51,200 at 26.22. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-07-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.22 Bid-YTW : 2.45 % |
| BAM.PR.B | Floater | 43,977 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-10-15 Maturity Price : 17.58 Evaluated at bid price : 17.58 Bid-YTW : 3.00 % |
| CM.PR.G | Perpetual-Premium | 43,378 | TD crossed two blocks of 20,000 each, both at 25.70. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-11-14 Maturity Price : 25.50 Evaluated at bid price : 25.70 Bid-YTW : -6.75 % |
| There were 20 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| BNA.PR.D | SplitShare | Quote: 26.47 – 26.99 Spot Rate : 0.5200 Average : 0.3319 YTW SCENARIO |
| IAG.PR.A | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 24.04 – 24.44 Spot Rate : 0.4000 Average : 0.2251 YTW SCENARIO |
| FTS.PR.E | OpRet | Quote: 26.60 – 26.95 Spot Rate : 0.3500 Average : 0.2238 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PR.J | OpRet | Quote: 26.67 – 26.99 Spot Rate : 0.3200 Average : 0.2289 YTW SCENARIO |
| GWO.PR.Q | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 25.76 – 25.94 Spot Rate : 0.1800 Average : 0.1117 YTW SCENARIO |
| IGM.PR.B | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 27.00 – 27.49 Spot Rate : 0.4900 Average : 0.4269 YTW SCENARIO |