What Is The Reset Rate On ALA.PR.A?

To my surprise and irritation, the reset rate on ALA.PR.A has not yet been announced.

The company’s preferred share page has a link to the Prospectus Supplement for the issue, but this link takes one to SEDAR, so I can’t provide a direct link to the document myself. The regulators are doing a fine job of making access to public documents inconvenient to the investor-scum elements of the public!

However, the relevant parts of the Supplement are:

“Initial Fixed Rate Period” means the period from and including the date of issue of the Series A Shares to, but excluding, September 30, 2015.

“Subsequent Fixed Rate Period” means, for the initial Subsequent Fixed Rate Period, the period from and including September 30, 2015 to, but excluding, September 30, 2020, and for each succeeding Subsequent Fixed Rate Period means the period from and including the day immediately following the last day of the immediately preceding Subsequent Fixed Rate Period to, but excluding, September 30 in the fifth year thereafter.

“Fixed Rate Calculation Date” means, for any Subsequent Fixed Rate Period, the 30th day prior to the first day of such Subsequent Fixed Rate Period.

On each Fixed Rate Calculation Date, AltaGas shall determine the Annual Fixed Dividend Rate for the ensuing Subsequent Fixed Rate Period. Each such determination shall, in the absence of manifest error, be final and binding upon AltaGas and upon all holders of Series A Shares. AltaGas shall, on each Fixed Rate Calculation Date, give written notice of the Annual Fixed Dividend Rate for the ensuing Subsequent Fixed Rate Period to the registered holders of the then outstanding Series A Shares.

The Series A Shares and Series B Shares will be issued in “book entry only” form and must be purchased or transferred through a participant in the CDS depository service (“CDS Participant”). AltaGas will cause a global certificate or certificates representing any newly issued Series A Shares or Series B Shares to be delivered to, and registered in the name of, CDS or its nominee.

So Altagas has fulfilled the letter of their obligation by sending a billet-doux to CDS, which is:

a wholly owned subsidiary of TMX Group Limited
(TMX Group)

which in turn is substantially owned by:

Each of CIBC World Markets Inc., National Bank Financial & Co. Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., and TD Securities Inc., either directly or through an affiliate, has agreed to maintain a specified minimum ownership interest in TMX Group for a period of five years from September 14, 2012. For the year ended September 14, 2013, each of these investors were required to own at least 6.25%, and for each of the four following years, each of these investors must own at least 5.625%, of our common shares outstanding as
at September 14, 2012″

Assiduous Readers will remember the July 4, 2012 report that the regulators had agreed to permit an extension of the banking oligopoly’s hegemony over the Canadian financial system in return for something the regulators consider very important: extra payments to the regulators.

So what it all boils down to is: investors are scum. If you want to know what the reset rate on ALA.PR.A is, your best bet is to ‘phone your friendly (and probably bank-owned) broker and, after listening to a pitch for GICs while you’re on hold for half an hour, ask your friendly Customer Service Rep if they wouldn’t mind telling you the reset rate on this issue, provided it doesn’t interfere with lunch or anything.

However, hope springs eternal and I have sent the following missive to AltaGas Investor Relations:

Sirs,

It is my understanding from the prospectus supplement that the dividend rate for ALA.PR.A for the period September 30, 2015, to September 29, 2020, has been determined.

What is the new dividend rate?

Will there be any kind of announcement or notification on your website?

Sincerely,

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