PrefBlog

In December I deduced that RY.PR.I and RY.PR.L would not be called on their Exchange Date of 2014-2-24, but warned:

Mind you, it will be noted that the presumed extension cannot yet be deemed a fact. According to the prospectus for RY.PR.I and the prospectus for RY.PR.L:

We will give notice of any redemption to registered holders not more than 60 days and not less than 30 days prior to the redemption date.

… so they’ve still got lots of time to change their minds one way or another if the market goes blahooey.

Well, there’s been a distinct lack of blahooeyness in the market over the past month, and today Royal Bank of Canada announced:

that it does not intend to exercise its right to redeem all or any part of the currently outstanding Non-Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset First Preferred Shares, Series AJ (the “Series AJ shares”) or Series AL (the “Series AL shares”) on February 24, 2014. There are currently 16,000,000 Series AJ shares and 12,000,000 Series AL shares outstanding.

Subject to certain conditions set out in the prospectus supplement dated September 9, 2008 relating to the issuance of the Series AJ shares, the holders of the Series AJ shares have the right to convert all or part of their Series AJ shares, on a one-for-one basis, into Non-Cumulative Floating Rate First Preferred Shares, Series AK (the “Series AK shares”) on February 24, 2014.

Subject to certain conditions set out in the prospectus supplement dated October 27, 2008 relating to the issuance of the Series AL shares, the holders of the Series AL shares have the right to convert all or part of their Series AL shares, on a one-for-one basis, into Non-Cumulative Floating Rate First Preferred Shares, Series AM (the “Series AM shares”) on February 24, 2014. On such date, holders who do not exercise their right to convert their Series AJ shares or Series AL shares into Series AK or Series AM shares, as the case may be, will continue to hold their Series AJ and Series AL shares.

The foregoing conversion rights are subject to the following:

i. if Royal Bank of Canada determines that there would be less than 1,000,000 Series AK shares or less than 1,000,000 Series AM shares outstanding after February 24, 2014, then holders of Series AJ or Series AL shares will not be entitled to convert their shares into Series AK or Series AM shares, as the case may be, and

ii. alternatively, if Royal Bank of Canada determines that there would remain outstanding less than 1,000,000 Series AJ or less than 1,000,000 Series AL shares after February 24, 2014, then all remaining Series AJ or AL shares will automatically be converted into Series AK or AM shares, as the case may be, on a one-for-one basis on February 24, 2014.

In either case, Royal Bank of Canada will give written notice to that effect to holders of Series AJ and AL shares no later than February 17, 2014.

The dividend rates applicable for the Series AJ and AL shares for the 5-year period from and including February 24, 2014 to but excluding February 24, 2019, and the dividend rates applicable to the Series AK and AM shares for the 3-month period from and including February 24, 2014 to but excluding May 24, 2014, will be determined and announced by way of a press release on January 24, 2014.

Beneficial owners of Series AJ shares and Series AL shares who wish to exercise their conversion rights, should communicate with their broker or other nominee to obtain instructions for exercising such rights during the conversion period, which runs from January 24, 2014, until 5:00 p.m. (EST) on February 10, 2014.

It is obviously too early to make a firm recommendation regarding conversion into FloatingResets since the fixed rate is not yet known, but at the moment all the FloatingReset / FixedReset pairs are trading with an entirely reasonable levels of Implied Average Three-Month Bill yield, so no convincing argument can be made either way.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 21st, 2014 at 9:45 pm 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.