Massive Liquidity Premium in BPO vs. BPS Preferred Shares

Assiduous Reader JQ writes in and says:

Hi, James,

I am your long time loyal reader and have learned a lot from you. Thank you very much.

Would you please to answer the following questions about BPO and BPS preferred shares:
BPO.PR._ and BPS.PR._ are both listed, are they same? Why the price difference is so big? Will BPO.PR._ be delisted?

Thank you.

Well, JQ, flattery will get you everywhere! I checked out the last bids for Friday:

BPO vs. BPS Retractible Preferred Shares
BPO Ticker Shares
Outstanding
Quote
2014-7-25
BPS Ticker Shares
Outstanding
Quote
2014-7-25
BPO.PR.H 7.0-million 25.40-57 BPS.PR.A 1.0-million 25.11-25
BPO.PR.J 7.0-million 25.26-35 BPS.PR.B 1.0-million 24.75-76
BPO.PR.K 5.0-milllion 25.70-94 BPS.PR.C 1.0-million 24.63-90
BPO.PR.U
[US Pay]
3.4-million 25.33-47 BPS.PR.U
[US Pay]
1.0-million 24.95-00

Assiduous Readers will recall that BPS preferred shares commenced trading on June 11. Readers will also recall that after reviewing the terms of the organization I concluded that I was more or less indifferent to the choice between the old BPO preferred and the equivalent BPS preferred share:

I make no recommendation. The decision will depend on each holders desire for a (miniscule) extra amount of credit protection (with the early retraction privilege) vs. what could potentially be a very severe loss of liquidity.

However, the difference in price between the equivalent issues is currently fairly large; I urge holders of the BPO preferred shares to review very carefully their need for liquidity and determine whether or not a swap is indicated in their particular situation.

Regrettably, Brookfield Properties Split Corp. still does not have a website, from which we may deduce that the directors (see SEDAR, Brookfield Property Split Corp. Jun 27 2014 14:34:52 ET Security holders documents – English; direct links are not permitted, since the (indirectly) bank-owned SEDAR has a monopoly granted by the securities regulators which they grossly abuse; the competition bureau has given the banks huge exemptions from competition laws in exchange for large regular payments to the regulators):

  • Saul Shulman
  • Bryan Kenneth Davis
  • Robert Stelzl, and
  • Denis Andre Turcotte

are morons. Fortunately, not much brainpower is required to operate a Split Share Corporation with a single issue portfolio.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.