DBRS has announced that it:
downgraded the rating of the Preferred Shares issued by Brompton Oil Split Corp. (the Company) to Pfd-5 from Pfd-4 (low). The Company invests in common shares of at least 15 large capitalization North American oil and gas issuers (the Portfolio) selected from the S&P 500 Index and the S&P/TSX Composite Index. The Company may also invest up to 25% of the Portfolio value in the common shares of issuers listed on the S&P 500 Index or the S&P/TSX Composite Index that satisfy its investment criteria, operating in energy subsectors including equipment, services, pipelines, transportation, and infrastructure. The Portfolio is approximately equally weighted, actively managed, and rebalanced at least semi-annually. A portion of the Portfolio’s investments are denominated in U.S. dollars; however, substantially all of this exposure is hedged back to Canadian dollars. The Company has the ability to write covered call options or engage in securities lending in order to generate additional income.
…
The dividend coverage ratio was approximately 0.3 times as of December 11, 2019.
…
As of December 11, 2019, the downside protection available to holders of the Preferred Shares was 0.6%. It has averaged around this level in the last three months as a result of depressed prices of energy stocks and the oil market struggling to recover from lower demand and oversupply. Subsequently, because of the downside protection reduction below acceptable levels for a prolonged period of time and weak dividend coverage, which creates further grind on the Portfolio, DBRS Morningstar downgraded the rating on the Preferred Shares to Pfd-5.The maturity date of the Preferred Shares is March 31, 2020. On March 9, 2019, the Company announced an extension of the term for another three to five years. The details of the term extension will be announced at least 60 days before the maturity date.
The Whole Unit NAVPU was 10.92 as of December 23, according to Brompton’s figures for the Capital Unit NAVPU and Preferred Share NAVPU, for an Asset Coverage Ratio of 1.1-:1, equivalent to Downside Protection of about 8%. It’s not clear to me how the DBRS figure of 0.6% was derived.