EFN.PR.A To Be Redeemed; company “anticipates” redeeming all series

Element Fleet Management Corp. has announced (in their Earnings Release of 2023-11-6; emphasis added):

To further optimize the Company’s balance sheet and mature its capital structure, the Company announced today its intention to redeem – in accordance with the terms of the 6.93% Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares Series A (the “Series A Shares”) as set out in the Company’s articles – all of its 4,600,000 issued and outstanding Series A Shares on December 31, 2023 (the “Redemption Date”) for a redemption price equal to $25.00 per Series A Share, for an aggregate total amount of approximately $115 million, together with all accrued and unpaid dividends up to but excluding the Redemption Date (the “Redemption Price”), less any tax required to be deducted and withheld by the Company.

The Company has provided notice today of the Redemption Price and the Redemption Date to the sole registered holder of the Series A Shares in accordance with the terms of the Series A Shares as set out in the Company’s articles. Non-registered holders of Series A Shares should contact their broker or other intermediary for information regarding the redemption process for the Series A Shares in which they hold a beneficial interest. The Company’s transfer agent for the Series A Shares is Computershare Investor Services Inc. Questions regarding the redemption process may be directed to Computershare Investor Services Inc. at 1-800-564-6253 or by email to corporateactions@computershare.com.

The Company also currently anticipates using a portion of its free cash flow to redeem all its outstanding 6.21% Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares Series C (due June 2024) and 5.903% Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares Series E (due September 2024) for approximate aggregate total amounts of $128 million and $133 million, respectively. Redeeming all the Company’s high-cost legacy preferred shares will eliminate approximately $5.9 million in cash dividends per quarter, once all redemptions are complete.

The Company also has approximately $168 million in 4.25% convertible debentures as of September 30, 2023, that are convertible into an aggregate of approximately 14.6 million common shares in June 2024.

Affected issues are EFN.PR.A, EFN.PR.C and EFN.PR.E.

EFN.PR.A was issued as a FixedReset, 6.60%+471, that was announced 2013-12-9; HIMIPref™ commenced tracking the issue in September 2015 after it received a DBRS rating. The notice of extension dated 2018-11-20 was reported on PrefBlog; EFN.PR.A reset at 6.933% effective 2018-12-31; I recommended against conversion; and there was no conversion. The issue is relegated to the Scraps – FixedReset Discount subindex on credit concerns.

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