ABK.PR.C Upgraded to Pfd-2 By DBRS

DBRS has announced that it:

has today upgraded the rating of the Class C Preferred Shares, Series 1 (the Class C Preferred Shares), issued by AllBanc Split Corp. (the Company) to Pfd-2 from Pfd-2 (low). On March 8, 2013, the Company issued 1,177,652 Class C Preferred Shares and 560,000 Class A Capital Shares (the Capital Shares) as part of a share capital reorganization, where all previously outstanding Class B Preferred Shares, Series 1 were fully redeemed. The final redemption date for the both classes of shares is March 8, 2018.

Net proceeds of the offering were used to purchase additional common shares of Bank of Montreal, The Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada and The Toronto-Dominion Bank (the Portfolio). Dividends received on the Portfolio are used to pay a fixed cumulative quarterly distribution to holders of the Class C Preferred Shares, yielding 4.00% annually on the initial issue price of $31.64. Increases in the dividend distribution policies of the underlying banks in the past year have boosted the dividend coverage ratio to 2.6 times. Holders of the Capital Shares are expected to receive all excess dividend income after the Class C Preferred Share distributions and other expenses of the Company have been paid.

The net asset value of the Company initially fell shortly after issuance, but has been generally increasing since the end of June 2013. Downside protection rose from 51.5% on June 20, 2013, to 60.2% on November 21, 2013, and has been fluctuating around 59% since then. As a result, the rating of the Class C Preferred Shares has been upgraded to Pfd-2 from Pfd-2 (low).

ABK.PR.C was last mentioned at the end of February when it announced a partial call for redemption. It is tracked by HIMIPref™ but relegated to the Scraps index on volume concerns.

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