Royal Bank of Canada has announced (on 2025-10-24):
its intention, subject to the approval of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), to redeem all of its issued and outstanding Non-Viability Contingent Capital (NVCC) Non-Cumulative First Preferred Shares, Series BH (Series BH shares) (TSX: RY.PR.N) and NVCC Non-Cumulative First Preferred Shares Series BI (Series BI shares) (TSX: RY.PR.O) on December 8, 2025, for cash at a redemption price of $25.00 per Series BH share and $25.00 per Series BI share.
In addition, the Bank has also declared a 14-day dividend of $0.046986301 per Series BH share and $0.046986301 per Series BI share covering the period from November 24, 2025 (the date of the last declared dividend payment), up to but excluding the redemption date of December 8, 2025. The final dividend for the Series BH shares and Series BI shares will be paid to shareholders of record at the close of business on November 10, 2025. This results in a total amount of $25.046986301 per Series BH share and $25.046986301 per Series BI share, to be paid on December 8, 2025, upon surrender of the Series BH shares and Series BI shares.
There are 6,000,000 Series BH shares outstanding, representing $150 million of capital, and 6,000,000 Series BI shares outstanding, representing $150 million of capital. The redemptions will be financed out of the general corporate funds of Royal Bank of Canada.
RY.PR.N is a 4.90% Straight Perpetual that commenced trading 2015-6-5 after being announced May 28. It is tracked by HIMIPref™ and is assigned to the PerpetualDiscounts subindex.
RY.PR.O is a NVCC-compliant Straight Perpetual paying 4.90% that commenced trading 2015-7-22 after being announced July 14. It is tracked by HIMIPref™ and is assigned to the PerpetualDiscounts subindex.
I would love to know why these prefs were issued and then redeemed in less than four months.
These prefs were issued in 2015. I think a small typo in James’ note above (he writes “commenced trading 2025-6-5” when it should be “2015-6-5”. If they had been issued 4 months ago, the redemption price would have been at a substantial premium to the $25 par price.
Mystery solved! Thank you.
Oops! Fixed it!