BCE.PR.O: No Conversion to FloatingReset

BCE Inc. has announced:

that none of its fixed-rate Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series AO (Series AO Preferred Shares) will be converted into floating-rate Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series AP (Series AP Preferred Shares) on March 31, 2017.

On March 1, 2017, BCE notified holders of Series AO Preferred Shares that they could elect to convert their shares into Series AP Preferred Shares subject to the terms and conditions attached to those shares. Only 104,631 of BCE’s 4,600,000 Series AO Preferred Shares were tendered for conversion on March 31, 2017 into Series AP Preferred Shares. As this would result in there being less than one million Series AP Preferred Shares outstanding, no Series AO Preferred Shares will, as per the terms and conditions attached to those shares, be converted on March 31, 2017 into Series AP Preferred Shares.

The Series AO Preferred Shares will continue to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BCE.PR.O. The Series AO Preferred Shares will pay on a quarterly basis, for the 5-year period beginning on March 31, 2017, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of BCE, a fixed quarterly cash dividend based on an annual dividend rate of 4.260%.

Assiduous Readers will remember that I recommended against conversion after the reset to 4.26% for BCE.PR.O.

One Response to “BCE.PR.O: No Conversion to FloatingReset”

  1. […] BCE.PR.O was issued as BAF.PR.C, a FixedReset, 4.55%+309, that commenced trading 2011-12-7 after being announced 2011-11-21. BCE privatized Bell Aliant in 2014 and included an Exchange Offer for its preferreds. The offer was successful and later became mandatory. After the first round, the ticker symbol, etc., was changed. BCE.PR.O reset to 4.26% in 2017; I recommended against conversion; and there was no conversion. […]

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