Cenovus Energy Inc. has announced:
it will exercise its right to redeem the Company’s 4.689% Series 3 Preferred Shares (the “Series 3 Preferred Shares”) on December 31, 2024 (the “Redemption”). All 10 million Series 3 Preferred Shares outstanding will be redeemed at the price of $25.00 per share, for an aggregate amount payable to holders of $250 million, less required withholdings, if any, funded primarily from cash on hand.
As previously announced, the Company’s Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.29306 per Series 3 Preferred Share payable on December 31, 2024, to shareholders of record as of December 13, 2024. This will be the final dividend paid on the Series 3 Preferred Shares.
Inquiries from registered holders of Series 3 Preferred Shares should be directed to our Registrar and Transfer Agent, Computershare Investor Services Inc. at 1-866-332-8898 or (514) 982-8717 outside North America. Beneficial holders, who are not directly registered holders of Series 3 Preferred Shares, should contact the financial institution, broker, or other intermediary through which they hold these shares to confirm how they will receive their redemption proceeds.
CVE.PR.C was issued as HSE.PR.C, a FixedReset, 4.50%+313, that commenced trading 2014-12-9 after being announced 2014-12-1. The initial reset rate announcement was quickly determined to be anomalous and eventually corrected. HSE.PR.C reset at 4.689% effective December 31, 2019 and there was no conversion. The ticker changed in January, 2021; the credit rating had shortly prior been downgraded in connection with the takeover; it was upgraded to Pfd-3(high) about a year later. The issue is tracked by HIMIPref™ and has been assigned to the Scraps – FixedResets-Discount subindex since the 2021 downgrade.
Thanks to Assiduous Readers niagara and CanSiamCyp for bringing this to my attention!
Since this is at the very end of the calendar year, does anyone know which year the Capital Gain will be credited to? I bot back in 2-20 at $17.46. It will make a difference for me on balancing carry forward, etc.
I think theoretically the money is supposed to be paid this year, although if your broker doesn’t credit it to you until later… dunno.
Since this is at the very end of the calendar year, does anyone know which year the Capital Gain will be credited to?
Your best bet to get information is to query investor relations at Cenovus and your broker; but it still isn’t a very good bet. Front-line staff cannot be relied upon for factual information of this nature and you’re probably not important enough to talk to the people who actually know how the mechanics of this works.
If this is important to you, you may wish to consider the idea that sometime in mid-December or thereabouts you place an offer to sell your holdings a penny or two below the quoted market. It won’t cost you much and you’ll get absolute certainty of the timing of the tax implications.
Why do I think it won’t cost you much? Right now it is trading cum the final dividend of 0.29306, which goes ex on 2024-12-13. The closing NBBO quote yesterday was 25.19-20, so to execute a sale today would cost you about $0.10 / share and you’d get your money a month sooner. That price of certainty will – I’ll bet a nickel – decline on and after 2024-12-13 to, I don’t know, maybe a nickel?
Speaking for myself, I would say ‘I don’t need the uncertainty and I don’t need the aggravation, either. And if there’s one thing I do know, it’s that I’m getting virtually no exposure to the preferred share market from this holding. Sell the suckers and buy something that might give you even more capital gains problems in the future!’
Jim, Thank You! I already knew this and sometimes a great teacher must show a student what they already know. Thumbs Up!! JA
I went digging through my own records and can share my past experience of holding SLF.PR.I up until the redemption on Dec 31, 2021 — a Friday. The redemption shows up on a T5008 which was provided to me by my broker for the 2021 tax year.