Market Action

September 28, 2015

Here’s a story that brings together two themes frequently highlighted on PrefBlog – the difficulty of pricing corporate bonds and the incompetence of traders as investors:

Canada’s C$112 billion ($84 billion) Public Sector Pension Investment Board sued Saba in New York state court on Friday, saying the firm “artificially manipulated” the value of its investment by marking down a significant portion of the fund’s portfolio after the retirement plan asked for all its money back, only to boost the value of the assets the following month.

The lawsuit is another setback to Weinstein, 42, the former co-chief of Deutsche Bank AG’s credit business, who posted three straight years of losses before making 5.2 percent this year through August. Assets at New York-based Saba, which Weinstein started in 2009, have slumped more than two-thirds from a peak of $5.5 billion three years ago and some senior partners have left the firm.

The pension board, represented by law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, said it asked Saba for its money back at the end of the first quarter after the fund couldn’t explain why it had suffered losses, and rejected a request to return its capital in three installments to keep other investors from finding out.

At the time, Saba held McClatchy Co. bonds that were hard to sell, according to the suit. The pension fund claimed that Saba changed the way it priced the debt before it returned the money. Normally, the hedge fund would use independent pricing services or brokers who regularly traded the bonds and had valued them at 50 cents to 60 cents on the dollar.

Instead, the retirement plan said Saba used a different process, which “purportedly produced materially depressed bids,” pricing the bonds at 31 cents as of March 31. Within a month, Saba returned to its usual pricing methodology and the bonds were marked in the 50s, the pension plan said.

Increasing the Fed Funds rate won’t be easy for the Fed:

In the past, the central bank kept the fed funds rate at or near the target chosen by policy makers by injecting or draining bank reserves from the system via the New York Fed’s trading desk. The amounts of cash involved were small and the Fed was pretty good at hitting its desired rate. Not anymore.

Three rounds of so-called quantitative easing from 2008 to 2014, in which the Fed bought bonds to support the economy, has swamped banks with cash — deposited with them by investors who sold bonds to the Fed. That added $2.6 trillion of reserves in excess of requirements to banks’ accounts held at the Fed. It also boosted the size of the Fed’s own balance sheet to $4.5 trillion, a five-fold increase from pre-crisis levels.

With so much cash and little need for banks to borrow in the fed funds market, the Fed has lost the ability to lift the funds rate in the way that it did before the crisis. It has also decided for now against selling the bonds back to investors, which would shrink its own balance sheet and extinguish the excess reserves.

Their main innovation, an overnight reverse repurchase agreement facility, is a powerful solution, but heavy usage may cause problems for banks trying to comply with new regulations installed in the wake of the financial crisis, said Zoltan Pozsar, director of U.S. economics at Credit Suisse Securities USA LLC in New York.

The facility promises to drain reserves from the banks by encouraging investors to withdraw the deposits created when they sold bonds to the Fed, and place the cash in money-market mutual funds.

Through overnight reverse repos, the Fed can borrow the cash from money funds at a specified rate and post securities as collateral, unwinding the trades the next day. In effect, the Fed will be borrowing back the money it created to buy the bonds while cutting out the middlemen in the banking system.

The problem: Banks aren’t sure exactly how much of their deposits they will cede to money-market funds once the Fed starts raising rates, or whose money or how fast. All of those things are important to understand for banks trying to stay in compliance with the liquidity coverage ratio, a major new pillar of global post-crisis banking regulation.

The liquidity rule requires banks to hold more cash and other “high-quality liquid assets” like Treasuries and government-backed mortgage bonds against their deposit base to protect themselves from runs. Because they can hold less cash against retail deposits than investor deposits, they will probably raise retail-deposit rates aggressively to hang on to these customers, according to [director of U.S. economics at Credit Suisse Securities USA LLC in New York Zoltan] Pozsar, who previously studied the plumbing of the post-crisis financial system in positions at the New York Fed and U.S. Treasury.

“They are going to fight for retail deposits like you’ve never seen them fight for retail deposits before,” Pozsar said. “That is going to be basically the defining feature of this hiking cycle.”

The upshot: Credit will become more expensive faster than in previous tightening cycles as banks pass higher deposit costs on to borrowers in an effort to maintain profitability.

In another article:

In a recent note, Credit Suisse analysts Zoltan Pozsar and James Sweeney highlight the potential impact on bank deposits and the potential for turbulence as the Fed approaches its “historic liftoff from the zero lower bound.” At issue are the non-operating accounts held by big institutional investors, which the analysts estimate equate to about 60 percent of the $1.1 trillion in deposits held by U.S. financial institutions.

For banks with lots of HQLA reserves and high-quality assets, the prospect of a bunch of hot money departing for the greener pastures of money market funds may not prove very worrisome. In fact, as deposits depart, such banks may find their balance sheets benefiting from a surplus of capital with which they can do all sorts of amusing things, such as buy back their stock and debt or (gasp!) raise deposit rates.

But for banks that haven’t loaded up on stickier funding or higher-quality assets to offset their non-operating deposits, well, things have the potential to become more interesting. As Pozsar and Sweeney put it: “A rising tide – rising interest rates – may not lift all boats as is typically the case during hiking cycles.”

Banks whose non-operating deposits eclipse their reserves do have a few levers they can pull to try to stem outflows, including paying depositors higher rates or lending out securities from their HQLA portfolios. But the point here should be clear. Two grand experiments, one conducted in the technical backwaters of monetary policy and the other operating in the realm of new banking rules, are about to collide.

So how to get new deposits? Here’s one way:

Since the 1950s, the U.K. has been issuing “premium bonds” that come with a chance to win a million-pound jackpot. An experiment at a South African bank 10 years ago boosted customers’ savings by 38 percent.

Now, D2D Fund, a nonprofit group focused on developing savings tools for low-income groups, has been pushing the idea in the U.S. It helped start “prize-linked savings” accounts at credit unions, which could take advantage of a loophole in federal law that allowed the contests. It also lobbied legislators to undo federal and state laws that banned cash giveaways by banks. President Barack Obama signed the American Savings Promotion Act on Dec. 18. A change in Virginia law took effect in July.

Brian Plum, Blue Ridge Bank’s 35-year-old president, was ready and waiting. He’d read about the concept last year and was eager to try it. He saw it as a way to help customers save more while also attracting new customers and new deposits to the $260-million asset bank.

Each month, the bank has a drawing with one $200 winner and four $50 winners. At the end of the year, it will give away a jackpot of $5,000. Customers get one drawing entry for every $25 increase in their account balance. To encourage savings, the bank allows only one withdrawal from a jackpot savings account per month, or else depositors pay a $5 withdrawal fee.

Another idea might be free toasters!

Bank of Montreal has released a report titled BMO Global Asset Management 2015 ETF Outlook, which is remarkable for its Panglossian insouciance regarding EFT liquidity:

Exchange traded funds have recently been in the news with questions about their liquidity. They have been called out as victims of their own success, growing rapidly and possibly outsizing less-liquid asset classes. The Volcker Rule, which restricts U.S. banks (and foreign banks operating in the United States) from engaging in certain types of speculative trading, may have caused fixed-income dealer trading inventory to drop. For asset classes like high yield bonds, this may mean less support from traditional sources like banks in the event of a liquidity crisis, leaving investors to wonder how an ETF will perform.

We believe all this attention is missing the point. Exchange traded funds are an access vehicle for an asset class – they provide additional benefits of liquidity, tradability, and diversification. This is particularly so for over-the-counter asset classes like bonds.

Investors looking for income, high returns, or portfolio benefits may decide high-yield bonds are appropriate. By trading an established ETF, the natural liquidity between buyers and sellers on the exchange may make the trade more efficient. If one investor is looking to buy and another is looking to sell, they can meet in the middle instead of each buying directly into the investment vehicle. Rather than sourcing bonds or buying into a fund with a daily opening, ETF investors can profit from intraday liquidity on the exchange and full transparency of trading costs through the market bid and ask prices. Importantly, ETFs are also backed by market makers who provide additional liquidity by holding and creating shares of the ETF. One-sided flows may affect the underlying asset classes in direct trading, but as market makers hedge their investment risk through the underlying holdings, the diversification across issues and issuers in ETFs reduces their impact.

As a test case of a market in crisis, we can look back to the high yield market in 2007. The liquidity crisis essentially froze trading in the underlying bonds. Meanwhile, as measured by SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (ticker JNK), ETFs continued to trade, acting as a price discovery vehicle for the asset class.

The ETF did trade at a significant discount of up to 8.7%, and later at a premium of up to 9.9%, which means the market price moved away from the net asset value (NAV). However, since the NAV was not reflecting actual bond trades, the ETF reflected the true value in the marketplace. Importantly, while trading spreads may have widened as a reflection of market uncertainty, investors that needed to buy or sell high yield bonds were able to do so via the ETF, rather than through the underlying portfolio.

The WSJ points out:

The downside: ETF investors can end up with a lower return than they expected if, for instance, they buy at a sizable premium to NAV but end up selling at a smaller one. This year, through June 30, JNK returned 6.1% based on its NAV but 5.8% based on its price, according to Morningstar. The gap is wider, 6.1% vs. 5.1%, for HYG.

… and as I noted on September 4:

So I’ll take solace in the growing recognition that circuit-breakers do not work as intended. Sadly, the response to ‘rules not working’ appears to be ‘more rules’:

When stocks were halted on Aug. 24, the result caused mayhem for many large ETFs because they became unmoored from their underlying share prices. The result was exaggerated swings in ETF prices, in excess of 40 per cent in some cases.

And, more seriously, Barclay’s musings reported on September 10, with the highlight:

The relationship between ETFs, funds and crisis liquidity has been a hot issue. Barclays weighs in with some musings on ‘first-mover’ advantage:

Illiquidity in corporate bonds would in theory spell bad news for bond funds that promise investors the ability to immediately get out of their positions. The concern here is that once investors get a whiff of an impending mass selloff in bonds, they could potentially rush for the exits to try to get ahead of it.

With liquidity already low, that could put massive pressure on debt prices. Those who manage to squeeze through the keyhole first get rewarded for their speed but end up exacerbating this downward spiral. The slowest investors, meanwhile, get left with a portfolio of bonds that’s potentially much reduced in price.

By how much, you ask? Barclays estimates about 2 percent for funds that hold junk-rated corporate debt (boldface ours):

It is disgraceful that BMO’s trained seals have not addressed these serious concerns forthrightly. But hey, this is Canada and the banks have a federally approved hegemony over the entire financial system, so suck it up.

Meanwhile, Silver Bullion Trust has released yet another vituperative letter to unitholders (emphasis from original):

As you may know, Sprott recently announced a fourth extension of their inadequate, hostile offer to acquire your Units. They have made no improvement to the terms of their offer, which is now set to expire on October 9, 2015. The reason for this latest extension is clear: despite bombarding Unitholders with a drawn out smear campaign against Silver Bullion Trust (“SBT”), its Trustees and its administrator, and despite paying brokers to convince their clients to tender, the vast majority of Unitholders have so far rejected Sprott’s offer. Sprott’s offer cannot succeed unless 662/3% of the Units are actually tendered, which has not been achieved.

Over the next few weeks, Sprott will undoubtedly continue to harass you and spread misinformation. Don’t be fooled, the facts haven’t changed: retaining your SBT Units remains a clearly superior alternative to Sprott’s inadequate offer, which is solely driven by their desperate desire to increase their assets under management and reverse the precipitous decline in their fee revenue, which has dropped by almost 40%1 since 2012.

There’s a new discussion paper out from the Bank of Canada, by Oleksiy Kryvtsov, Miguel Molico and Ben Tomlin titled On the Nexus of Monetary Policy and Financial Stability: Recent Developments and Research:

Because financial and macroeconomic conditions are tightly interconnected, financial stability considerations are an important element of any monetary policy framework. Yet, the circumstances under which it would be appropriate for the Bank to use monetary policy to lean against financial risks need to be more fully specified (Côté 2014). The extent to which financial stability concerns should be taken into account by monetary policy will be a priority topic of research at the Bank for the renewal of the inflation-control target agreement in 2016. This paper reviews four considerations of interest, taking stock of key domestic and international developments and knowledge gained over the past few years: (i) Canada and other countries have made significant progress in the implementation of micro- and macroprudential regulatory reforms, and limited existing research finds that most of these policies were effective in reducing the potential need for leaning by monetary policy; (ii) the effectiveness of the monetary policy transmission mechanism depends on the state of the financial system, implying that financial system conditions need to be taken into account by monetary policy; (iii) although exceptionally low interest rates and other forms of monetary stimulus are sometimes needed to support growth and achieve inflation-target mandates, they may lead to excessive risk-taking activities and therefore contribute to the buildup of financial imbalances; and (iv) coordination of monetary and macroprudential policies for dealing with imbalances may, in some circumstances, be beneficial. The paper concludes by identifying future areas of research to further clarify the role of monetary policy in addressing financial stability risks.

I haven’t had time to review this paper thoroughly yet, but a quick read gives me the impression it’s intended to provide a scrap of respectability for mission creep and central planning by our Wise Masters in Ottawa. Assiduous Readers will remember that “macroprudential” is the Central Planners’ jargon for credit rationing, as discussed in the post Ultra-low or negative interest rates: what they mean for financial stability and growth.

It was a pretty awful day for equities:

Evidence of industrial weakness in China renewed anxiety about a global slowdown, sending Freeport-McMoRan Inc. tumbling 9.1 percent as copper dropped to the lowest in a month. Energy shares lost 3.6 percent as oil prices slid. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index sank 6 percent following its worst week since 2011. Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. fell more than 3.8 percent as investors sold some of the year’s better performers. Alcoa Inc. rose 5.7 percent after saying it will split into two companies.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 2.6 percent to 1,881.77 at 4 p.m. in New York, down for a fifth consecutive session to the lowest since Aug. 25. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 312.78 points, or 1.9 percent, to 16,001.89. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 3 percent, while the Russell 2000 Index slumped 2.9 percent to an 11-month low. About 8.4 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges Monday, 15 percent above the three-month average.

And even worse for commodities:

Investors are reacting to diminished demand from China and an end to the cheap-money era provided by the Federal Reserve. A Bloomberg index of commodity futures has fallen 50 percent since a 2011 high, and eight of the 10 worst performers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index this year are commodities-related businesses.

Now it all seems to be coming apart at once. Alcoa Inc., the biggest U.S. aluminum producer, said it would break itself into two companies amid a glut stemming from booming production. Royal Dutch Shell Plc announced it would abandon its drilling campaign in U.S. Arctic waters after spending $7 billion. And the carnage culminated Monday with Glencore Plc, the commodities powerhouse that came to symbolize the era with its initial public offering in 2011 and bold acquisition of a rival in 2013, falling by as much as 31 percent in London trading.

And portfolio managers who live by the sword, die by the sword:

Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb, managers of the $7.8 billion Sequoia Fund, suffered a paper loss of about $1.2 billion after shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals plunged.

The drug maker fell as much as 20 percent after Democrats in the U.S. House asked to subpoena the company for documents relating to drug price increases, the latest move by politicians seeking to curb prices on acquired drugs.

Ruane Cunniff, Valeant’s largest owner, held 33.9 million shares of the drug company as of June 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Valeant fell $35.79, or 18 percent, in New York trading at 2:23 pm, which translates to a loss for the money manager of $1.21 billion. The calculation assumes the money manager has not added or sold shares.

Valeant represented 29 percent of the fund’s holdings as of June 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The fund outperformed 99 percent of rivals this year and 97 percent over the past five years.

Valeant shares, including reinvested dividends, have climbed almost seven-fold over the past five years.

And Fed officials are still jawboning the market:

The Federal Reserve will probably raise interest rates later this year and tighten policy gradually thereafter, New York Fed President William C. Dudley said, echoing the sentiment of Chair Janet Yellen that an uncertain global outlook won’t postpone liftoff into 2016.

“The economy is doing pretty well,” Dudley said Monday at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal in New York. “My expectation is that we probably will raise interest rates later this year.” Dudley said he expected growth in the second half will be a little bit weaker than in the first half, when the U.S. grew around 2.25 percent on an annualized basis.

San Francisco Fed President John Williams, speaking later on Monday, made a similar argument. Their remarks line up with Yellen, who said Sept. 24 she felt it likely the Fed would increase rates this year for the first time in almost a decade.

Meanwhile, Canadian preferred share investors were having lunch with their brokers:

It was an incredibly awful day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts down 103bp, FixedResets losing an amazing 245bp and DeemedRetractibles off a mere 86bp. Let’s not even talk about the Performance Highlights table, it’s ridiculous. Volume was high.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.76%, equivalent to 7.49% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long corporates continue to yield about 4.2%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread is now about 330bp. Let’s put that figure into perspective, shall we? I show only a five week period in the past fifteen years of Seniority Spreads exceeding this figure – from 2008-11-26 to 2018-12-24, inclusive. Spreads approached this figure in May, 2010, but did not breach the 330bp level.

We’ve also got FixedResets yield 4.77% … call it GOC-5 +400bp, give or take. This is ludicrous! In my listing of investment-grade FixedResets in the September PrefLetter, there was nothing with an Issue Reset Spread of as much as that; the highest spread was HSE.PR.E with a spread of +357. This has since been surpassed by the BAM new issue 5.00%+417M500, but still!

The market isn’t doing this on credit problems, or even concerns about credit problems, which would at least make some sense. I don’t know what’s driving this crash any more, although I can mutter nostrums such as ‘fear’ and ‘negative sentiment’ with the best of them. I have to think that this is an amazing buying opportunity … but as a buddy of mine used to like to say ‘One more buying opportunity … and I’ll be broke!’

For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I’ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets’ Implied Volatilities. This doesn’t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.

Remember that all rich /cheap assessments are:
» based on Implied Volatility Theory only
» are relative only to other FixedResets from the same issuer
» assume constant GOC-5 yield
» assume constant Implied Volatility
» assume constant spread

Here’s TRP:

impVol_TRP_150928
Click for Big

Implied Volatility jumped again today.

TRP.PR.E, which resets 2019-10-30 at +235, is bid at 17.50 to be $0.57 rich, while TRP.PR.C, resetting 2016-1-30 at +164, is $0.83 cheap at its bid price of 11.83.

impVol_MFC_150928
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Another good fit today for MFC, with Implied Volatility jumping.

Most expensive is MFC.PR.H, resetting at +313bp on 2017-3-19, bid at 23.21 to be 0.71 rich, while MFC.PR.G, resetting at +290bp on 2016-12-19, is bid at 21.16 to be 0.57 cheap.

impVol_BAM_150928
Click for Big

The fit on the BAM issues continues to be horrible. Note that the pending new issue has been added with a price of 25.00; the valuation effects of the rate floor have been ignored.

The cheapest issue relative to its peers is BAM.PR.R, resetting at +230bp on 2016-6-30, bid at 15.70 to be $0.77 cheap. BAM.PF.G, resetting at +284bp on 2020-6-30 is bid at 20.25 and appears to be $1.00 rich.

impVol_FTS_150928
Click for Big

FTS.PR.M, with a spread of +248bp, and bid at 19.80, looks $0.79 expensive and resets 2019-12-1. FTS.PR.K, with a spread of +205bp and resetting 2019-3-1, is bid at 16.01 and is $0.50 cheap.

pairs_FR_150928
Click for Big

Investment-grade pairs predict an average three-month bill yield over the next five-odd years of -1.04%, with two outliers above 0.00%. The distribution’s bimodality has returned, with bank NVCC non-compliant pairs averaging -1.58% and other issues averaging -0.29%. There are two junk outliers above 0.00%.

pairs_FF_150928
Click for Big

Shall we just say that this exhibits a high level of confidence in the continued rapacity of Canadian banks?

Other Canadian preferred share investors were examining their statements:

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.3485 % 1,659.6
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.3485 % 2,901.8
Floater 4.48 % 4.47 % 61,062 16.48 3 0.3485 % 1,764.3
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.2130 % 2,761.0
SplitShare 4.50 % 4.92 % 65,822 3.03 4 -0.2130 % 3,235.7
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.2130 % 2,524.7
Perpetual-Premium 5.81 % 5.82 % 60,640 14.07 8 -0.9740 % 2,465.1
Perpetual-Discount 5.69 % 5.76 % 72,206 14.22 30 -1.0303 % 2,493.6
FixedReset 5.15 % 4.77 % 173,723 15.27 75 -2.4533 % 1,974.2
Deemed-Retractible 5.28 % 5.13 % 95,269 5.46 33 -0.8641 % 2,517.7
FloatingReset 2.63 % 4.46 % 61,997 5.84 9 -1.2200 % 2,067.0
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
TD.PF.D FixedReset -5.70 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 20.50
Evaluated at bid price : 20.50
Bid-YTW : 4.43 %
MFC.PR.L FixedReset -5.48 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.45
Bid-YTW : 7.35 %
TD.PF.E FixedReset -5.43 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 21.45
Evaluated at bid price : 21.75
Bid-YTW : 4.25 %
RY.PR.M FixedReset -5.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 19.74
Evaluated at bid price : 19.74
Bid-YTW : 4.42 %
MFC.PR.I FixedReset -5.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.05
Bid-YTW : 6.11 %
MFC.PR.G FixedReset -4.86 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.16
Bid-YTW : 6.00 %
CM.PR.Q FixedReset -4.83 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 20.51
Evaluated at bid price : 20.51
Bid-YTW : 4.36 %
RY.PR.J FixedReset -4.71 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 20.04
Evaluated at bid price : 20.04
Bid-YTW : 4.47 %
TD.PF.A FixedReset -4.62 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.60
Evaluated at bid price : 18.60
Bid-YTW : 4.39 %
BMO.PR.W FixedReset -4.61 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.22
Evaluated at bid price : 18.22
Bid-YTW : 4.41 %
TD.PF.B FixedReset -4.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.60
Evaluated at bid price : 18.60
Bid-YTW : 4.37 %
MFC.PR.J FixedReset -4.28 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.78
Bid-YTW : 6.00 %
TRP.PR.E FixedReset -4.28 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 17.50
Evaluated at bid price : 17.50
Bid-YTW : 4.82 %
RY.PR.H FixedReset -4.17 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.62
Evaluated at bid price : 18.62
Bid-YTW : 4.37 %
RY.PR.N Perpetual-Discount -4.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 22.37
Evaluated at bid price : 22.66
Bid-YTW : 5.54 %
BAM.PF.E FixedReset -4.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 17.75
Evaluated at bid price : 17.75
Bid-YTW : 5.12 %
CM.PR.O FixedReset -4.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.75
Evaluated at bid price : 18.75
Bid-YTW : 4.36 %
TRP.PR.D FixedReset -3.88 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 17.10
Evaluated at bid price : 17.10
Bid-YTW : 4.86 %
NA.PR.W FixedReset -3.84 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.27
Evaluated at bid price : 18.27
Bid-YTW : 4.48 %
CM.PR.P FixedReset -3.70 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 17.97
Evaluated at bid price : 17.97
Bid-YTW : 4.44 %
IFC.PR.C FixedReset -3.64 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.55
Bid-YTW : 7.44 %
NA.PR.S FixedReset -3.57 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.90
Evaluated at bid price : 18.90
Bid-YTW : 4.50 %
RY.PR.Z FixedReset -3.56 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.71
Evaluated at bid price : 18.71
Bid-YTW : 4.30 %
SLF.PR.H FixedReset -3.54 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 17.17
Bid-YTW : 7.89 %
TRP.PR.F FloatingReset -3.46 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 13.10
Evaluated at bid price : 13.10
Bid-YTW : 4.43 %
RY.PR.O Perpetual-Discount -3.45 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 22.28
Evaluated at bid price : 22.65
Bid-YTW : 5.49 %
BMO.PR.S FixedReset -3.40 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 19.01
Evaluated at bid price : 19.01
Bid-YTW : 4.36 %
MFC.PR.N FixedReset -3.40 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.03
Bid-YTW : 7.05 %
BNS.PR.D FloatingReset -3.38 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.60
Bid-YTW : 6.38 %
FTS.PR.H FixedReset -3.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 13.16
Evaluated at bid price : 13.16
Bid-YTW : 4.41 %
BMO.PR.Y FixedReset -3.30 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 20.82
Evaluated at bid price : 20.82
Bid-YTW : 4.39 %
FTS.PR.G FixedReset -3.23 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 16.50
Evaluated at bid price : 16.50
Bid-YTW : 4.69 %
PWF.PR.F Perpetual-Discount -3.21 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 22.34
Evaluated at bid price : 22.61
Bid-YTW : 5.90 %
MFC.PR.M FixedReset -3.19 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.44
Bid-YTW : 6.83 %
TD.PF.C FixedReset -3.13 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.26
Evaluated at bid price : 18.26
Bid-YTW : 4.45 %
BAM.PF.G FixedReset -3.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 20.25
Evaluated at bid price : 20.25
Bid-YTW : 4.77 %
FTS.PR.K FixedReset -2.97 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 16.01
Evaluated at bid price : 16.01
Bid-YTW : 4.82 %
GWO.PR.L Deemed-Retractible -2.83 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.05
Bid-YTW : 6.23 %
BAM.PF.F FixedReset -2.82 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 19.97
Evaluated at bid price : 19.97
Bid-YTW : 4.82 %
GWO.PR.I Deemed-Retractible -2.79 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.59
Bid-YTW : 7.16 %
MFC.PR.K FixedReset -2.76 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.04
Bid-YTW : 6.83 %
GWO.PR.R Deemed-Retractible -2.75 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.25
Bid-YTW : 7.06 %
MFC.PR.F FixedReset -2.72 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 14.30
Bid-YTW : 9.38 %
TRP.PR.B FixedReset -2.59 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 11.65
Evaluated at bid price : 11.65
Bid-YTW : 4.49 %
IAG.PR.G FixedReset -2.59 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.70
Bid-YTW : 6.25 %
BAM.PF.B FixedReset -2.58 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.51
Evaluated at bid price : 18.51
Bid-YTW : 4.85 %
TRP.PR.A FixedReset -2.52 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 14.71
Evaluated at bid price : 14.71
Bid-YTW : 4.85 %
PWF.PR.R Perpetual-Premium -2.51 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 23.64
Evaluated at bid price : 24.10
Bid-YTW : 5.79 %
VNR.PR.A FixedReset -2.49 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.40
Evaluated at bid price : 18.40
Bid-YTW : 5.11 %
GWO.PR.H Deemed-Retractible -2.42 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.37
Bid-YTW : 7.03 %
TRP.PR.G FixedReset -2.39 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 19.57
Evaluated at bid price : 19.57
Bid-YTW : 4.85 %
BMO.PR.Z Perpetual-Discount -2.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 22.48
Evaluated at bid price : 22.80
Bid-YTW : 5.56 %
GWO.PR.G Deemed-Retractible -2.30 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.52
Bid-YTW : 6.68 %
POW.PR.B Perpetual-Discount -2.26 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 22.69
Evaluated at bid price : 22.93
Bid-YTW : 5.84 %
MFC.PR.B Deemed-Retractible -2.25 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.82
Bid-YTW : 7.20 %
MFC.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -2.15 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.01
Bid-YTW : 7.58 %
RY.PR.F Deemed-Retractible -2.12 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.51
Bid-YTW : 4.92 %
HSE.PR.G FixedReset -2.00 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 21.68
Evaluated at bid price : 22.05
Bid-YTW : 4.97 %
BMO.PR.T FixedReset -1.99 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.72
Evaluated at bid price : 18.72
Bid-YTW : 4.32 %
FTS.PR.M FixedReset -1.98 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 19.80
Evaluated at bid price : 19.80
Bid-YTW : 4.39 %
BNS.PR.Y FixedReset -1.95 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.56
Bid-YTW : 6.06 %
BMO.PR.Q FixedReset -1.94 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.25
Bid-YTW : 5.94 %
TD.PF.F Perpetual-Discount -1.91 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 22.74
Evaluated at bid price : 23.10
Bid-YTW : 5.38 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset -1.88 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.85
Bid-YTW : 6.41 %
POW.PR.D Perpetual-Discount -1.85 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 21.48
Evaluated at bid price : 21.74
Bid-YTW : 5.76 %
SLF.PR.G FixedReset -1.84 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 14.92
Bid-YTW : 8.64 %
CU.PR.G Perpetual-Discount -1.83 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 19.80
Evaluated at bid price : 19.80
Bid-YTW : 5.75 %
BAM.PF.A FixedReset -1.80 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 19.05
Evaluated at bid price : 19.05
Bid-YTW : 5.04 %
W.PR.J Perpetual-Discount -1.79 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 23.32
Evaluated at bid price : 23.60
Bid-YTW : 6.05 %
SLF.PR.E Deemed-Retractible -1.71 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.15
Bid-YTW : 7.46 %
TD.PR.T FloatingReset -1.68 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.63
Bid-YTW : 4.46 %
POW.PR.A Perpetual-Premium -1.67 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 23.95
Evaluated at bid price : 24.20
Bid-YTW : 5.79 %
HSE.PR.C FixedReset -1.55 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 20.33
Evaluated at bid price : 20.33
Bid-YTW : 5.02 %
IGM.PR.B Perpetual-Premium -1.52 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 24.55
Evaluated at bid price : 24.84
Bid-YTW : 5.93 %
TD.PR.Y FixedReset -1.50 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.23
Bid-YTW : 3.68 %
CU.PR.E Perpetual-Discount -1.43 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 21.34
Evaluated at bid price : 21.34
Bid-YTW : 5.81 %
SLF.PR.A Deemed-Retractible -1.41 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.02
Bid-YTW : 7.15 %
MFC.PR.H FixedReset -1.40 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.21
Bid-YTW : 5.04 %
PWF.PR.P FixedReset -1.36 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 14.52
Evaluated at bid price : 14.52
Bid-YTW : 4.22 %
PWF.PR.K Perpetual-Discount -1.36 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 21.57
Evaluated at bid price : 21.83
Bid-YTW : 5.76 %
SLF.PR.I FixedReset -1.34 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.90
Bid-YTW : 6.63 %
BMO.PR.M FixedReset -1.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.89
Bid-YTW : 3.75 %
GWO.PR.S Deemed-Retractible -1.30 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.80
Bid-YTW : 6.56 %
RY.PR.W Perpetual-Discount -1.23 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 23.12
Evaluated at bid price : 23.38
Bid-YTW : 5.29 %
W.PR.H Perpetual-Discount -1.18 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 23.22
Evaluated at bid price : 23.52
Bid-YTW : 5.96 %
CU.PR.F Perpetual-Discount -1.14 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 20.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.00
Bid-YTW : 5.69 %
BNS.PR.A FloatingReset -1.10 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.45
Bid-YTW : 4.30 %
BNS.PR.B FloatingReset -1.10 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.56
Bid-YTW : 4.63 %
TD.PR.S FixedReset -1.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.00
Bid-YTW : 3.67 %
CU.PR.C FixedReset -1.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 19.40
Evaluated at bid price : 19.40
Bid-YTW : 4.23 %
CU.PR.D Perpetual-Discount -1.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 21.45
Evaluated at bid price : 21.45
Bid-YTW : 5.78 %
HSE.PR.A FixedReset -1.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 13.36
Evaluated at bid price : 13.36
Bid-YTW : 4.85 %
IFC.PR.A FixedReset 1.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 15.50
Bid-YTW : 9.26 %
PWF.PR.L Perpetual-Discount 3.23 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 22.44
Evaluated at bid price : 22.70
Bid-YTW : 5.70 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
NA.PR.M Deemed-Retractible 320,275 Called for redemption.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2015-10-28
Maturity Price : 25.50
Evaluated at bid price : 25.81
Bid-YTW : -0.29 %
BNS.PR.M Deemed-Retractible 112,933 RBC crossed 100,000 at 25.16.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.00
Bid-YTW : 4.66 %
CU.PR.I FixedReset 74,489 TD crossed 30,000 at 25.15.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 23.19
Evaluated at bid price : 25.12
Bid-YTW : 4.38 %
MFC.PR.J FixedReset 44,170 Scotia crossed 36,600 at 21.70.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.78
Bid-YTW : 6.00 %
SLF.PR.I FixedReset 24,950 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.90
Bid-YTW : 6.63 %
TD.PF.C FixedReset 24,300 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.26
Evaluated at bid price : 18.26
Bid-YTW : 4.45 %
There were 44 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
RY.PR.M FixedReset Quote: 19.74 – 20.79
Spot Rate : 1.0500
Average : 0.7348

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 19.74
Evaluated at bid price : 19.74
Bid-YTW : 4.42 %

CM.PR.O FixedReset Quote: 18.75 – 19.49
Spot Rate : 0.7400
Average : 0.4815

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 18.75
Evaluated at bid price : 18.75
Bid-YTW : 4.36 %

MFC.PR.I FixedReset Quote: 21.05 – 21.79
Spot Rate : 0.7400
Average : 0.4926

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.05
Bid-YTW : 6.11 %

PWF.PR.F Perpetual-Discount Quote: 22.61 – 23.45
Spot Rate : 0.8400
Average : 0.5973

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 22.34
Evaluated at bid price : 22.61
Bid-YTW : 5.90 %

RY.PR.O Perpetual-Discount Quote: 22.65 – 23.28
Spot Rate : 0.6300
Average : 0.3890

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-28
Maturity Price : 22.28
Evaluated at bid price : 22.65
Bid-YTW : 5.49 %

RY.PR.F Deemed-Retractible Quote: 24.51 – 25.09
Spot Rate : 0.5800
Average : 0.3629

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.51
Bid-YTW : 4.92 %

Data Changes

EFN.PR.A, EFN.PR.C, EFN.PR.E and EFN.PR.G Added To HIMIPref™

As announced in the post EFN Receives Pfd-3 Rating From DBRS; Issues Will Be Added To HIMIPref™, the captioned issues have been added to HIMIPref™

Element Financial FixedResets
Ticker Dividend Terms Reset Date
EFN.PR.A 6.60%+471 2018-12-31
EFN.PR.C 6.50%+481 2019-6-30
EFN.PR.E 6.40%+472 2019-9-30
EFN.PR.G 6.50%+534 2020-9-30
Market Action

September 25, 2015

Swap spreads are below zero:

At the height of the financial crisis, the unprecedented decline in swap rates below Treasury yields was seen as an anomaly. The phenomenon is now widespread.

Swap rates are what companies, investors and traders pay to exchange fixed interest payments for floating ones. That rate falling below Treasury yields — the spread between the two being negative — is illogical in the eyes of most market observers, because it theoretically signals that traders view the credit of banks as superior to that of the U.S. government.

Back in 2009, it was only negative in the 30-year maturity, a temporary offshoot of deleveraging and market swings following the credit crisis. These days, swap spreads are near or below zero across maturities.

If the flip to negative spreads persists, it would signal that its roots are in regulators’ efforts to head off another financial crisis, according to Kohli.

Regulatory moves such as higher capital requirements have led banks to curtail market-making, crimping liquidity and driving repurchase agreement rates above bank funding benchmarks. Repo rates factor into Treasuries pricing because they’re considered the cost of financing positions in government debt.

There’s a very peculiar suggestion regarding ETF trading:

A group of high-frequency trading firms advised U.S. regulators on how to prevent a repeat of the wild Aug. 24 trading session that roiled hundreds of securities, leaving exchange-traded funds’ prices out of sync with the values of their assets.

In a Sept. 24 letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the industry group Modern Markets Initiative proposed three main solutions to prevent problems with prices of ETFs: clarifying rules for canceling trades, loosening short-selling restrictions so arbitragers can better hedge, and protecting small investors by preventing their ETF orders from executing when the price of those securities becomes detached from their underlying stocks.

Finally, the Modern Markets Initiative letter proposed protecting retail investors during times when ETFs diverge from their underlying stocks. If, for example, the ETF’s price is 5 percent or more away from the NAV, small investors’ orders wouldn’t be executed.

Huh? Restricting retail access to the marketplace? Well, just about anything’s possible these days…

After yesterday‘s massive losses, a lot of preferred share investors were hoping the market would come back. Be careful what you wish for …

burntZombies
Click for Big

The Canadian preferred share market was crushed again today, with PerpetualDiscounts down 74bp, FixedResets losing 97bp and DeemedRetractibles off 34bp; numbers that look mild only in comparison with yesterday. The Performance Highlights table is, of course, horrific and dominated by losing FixedResets, although a number of issues bounced back from yesterday’s quotes far enough to make it onto the good part of the table. Volume was very heavy and notable for blocks of NVCC non-compliant bank FloatingResets.

For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I’ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets’ Implied Volatilities. This doesn’t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.

Remember that all rich /cheap assessments are:
» based on Implied Volatility Theory only
» are relative only to other FixedResets from the same issuer
» assume constant GOC-5 yield
» assume constant Implied Volatility
» assume constant spread

Here’s TRP:

impVol_TRP_150925
Click for Big

Implied Volatility jumped today.

TRP.PR.E, which resets 2019-10-30 at +235, is bid at 18.56 to be $1.00 rich, while TRP.PR.C, resetting 2016-1-30 at +164, is $1.07 cheap at its bid price of 12.12.

impVol_MFC_150925
Click for Big

Another good fit today for MFC, with Implied Volatility falling back a little after yesterday’s jump.

Most expensive is MFC.PR.J, resetting at +261bp on 2018-3-19, bid at 21.71 to be 0.38 rich, while MFC.PR.G, resetting at +290bp on 2016-12-19, is bid at 22.24 to be 0.30 cheap.

impVol_BAM_150925
Click for Big

The fit on the BAM issues continues to be horrible. Note that the pending new issue has been added with a price of 25.00; the valuation effects of the rate floor have been ignored.

The cheapest issue relative to its peers is BAM.PR.R, resetting at +230bp on 2016-6-30, bid at 15.70 to be $1.14 cheap. BAM.PF.G, resetting at +284bp on 2020-6-30 is bid at 20.90 and appears to be $1.31 rich.

impVol_FTS_150925
Click for Big

FTS.PR.M, with a spread of +248bp, and bid at 20.20, looks $0.70 expensive and resets 2019-12-1. FTS.PR.K, with a spread of +205bp and resetting 2019-3-1, is bid at 16.50 and is $0.48 cheap.

pairs_FR_150925
Click for Big

Investment-grade pairs predict an average three-month bill yield over the next five-odd years of -0.98%, with three outliers above 0.00%. The distribution’s bimodality has returned, with bank NVCC non-compliant pairs averaging -1.45% and other issues averaging -0.32%. There are two junk outliers above 0.00%.

pairs_FF_150925
Click for Big

Shall we just say that this exhibits a high level of confidence in the continued rapacity of Canadian banks?

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.8629 % 1,653.8
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.8629 % 2,891.7
Floater 4.49 % 4.48 % 61,265 16.45 3 0.8629 % 1,758.2
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.0737 % 2,766.9
SplitShare 4.49 % 4.90 % 65,029 3.04 4 -0.0737 % 3,242.6
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.0737 % 2,530.0
Perpetual-Premium 5.75 % 4.24 % 59,600 0.08 8 0.2690 % 2,489.4
Perpetual-Discount 5.63 % 5.71 % 71,309 14.28 30 -0.7389 % 2,519.6
FixedReset 5.02 % 4.65 % 180,238 15.37 75 -0.9669 % 2,023.9
Deemed-Retractible 5.23 % 5.09 % 95,901 5.48 33 -0.3399 % 2,539.6
FloatingReset 2.56 % 4.36 % 60,575 5.87 9 0.4915 % 2,092.6
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
NA.PR.S FixedReset -5.95 % This is real enough! The issue traded 7,935 shares today in a range of 19.60-21.00, with a series of seventeen trades totalling 4,500 shares starting at 3:20pm at 20.10 declining slowly but surely down to 19.60.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.60
Evaluated at bid price : 19.60
Bid-YTW : 4.37 %
TRP.PR.G FixedReset -4.57 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 20.05
Evaluated at bid price : 20.05
Bid-YTW : 4.76 %
IAG.PR.G FixedReset -4.54 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.25
Bid-YTW : 5.92 %
PWF.PR.L Perpetual-Discount -4.52 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 21.75
Evaluated at bid price : 21.99
Bid-YTW : 5.89 %
BMO.PR.T FixedReset -4.50 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.10
Evaluated at bid price : 19.10
Bid-YTW : 4.26 %
RY.PR.J FixedReset -4.41 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 21.03
Evaluated at bid price : 21.03
Bid-YTW : 4.28 %
CM.PR.P FixedReset -4.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 18.66
Evaluated at bid price : 18.66
Bid-YTW : 4.30 %
FTS.PR.K FixedReset -4.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 16.50
Evaluated at bid price : 16.50
Bid-YTW : 4.70 %
TRP.PR.E FixedReset -3.58 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 18.56
Evaluated at bid price : 18.56
Bid-YTW : 4.66 %
CM.PR.O FixedReset -3.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.54
Evaluated at bid price : 19.54
Bid-YTW : 4.21 %
RY.PR.M FixedReset -3.25 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 20.85
Evaluated at bid price : 20.85
Bid-YTW : 4.21 %
BMO.PR.S FixedReset -3.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.68
Evaluated at bid price : 19.68
Bid-YTW : 4.24 %
BNS.PR.D FloatingReset -3.02 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.25
Bid-YTW : 5.75 %
TRP.PR.D FixedReset -3.01 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 18.05
Evaluated at bid price : 18.05
Bid-YTW : 4.72 %
BMO.PR.W FixedReset -3.00 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.10
Evaluated at bid price : 19.10
Bid-YTW : 4.23 %
RY.PR.H FixedReset -2.85 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.43
Evaluated at bid price : 19.43
Bid-YTW : 4.21 %
BMO.PR.Z Perpetual-Discount -2.75 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 22.94
Evaluated at bid price : 23.34
Bid-YTW : 5.43 %
BNS.PR.Y FixedReset -2.68 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.95
Bid-YTW : 5.72 %
TD.PF.C FixedReset -2.48 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 18.85
Evaluated at bid price : 18.85
Bid-YTW : 4.33 %
VNR.PR.A FixedReset -2.48 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 18.87
Evaluated at bid price : 18.87
Bid-YTW : 5.01 %
RY.PR.Z FixedReset -2.37 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.40
Evaluated at bid price : 19.40
Bid-YTW : 4.17 %
MFC.PR.F FixedReset -2.33 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 14.70
Bid-YTW : 9.04 %
CU.PR.H Perpetual-Discount -2.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 22.87
Evaluated at bid price : 23.25
Bid-YTW : 5.72 %
SLF.PR.J FloatingReset -2.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 12.70
Bid-YTW : 10.01 %
BAM.PR.M Perpetual-Discount -2.24 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 20.05
Evaluated at bid price : 20.05
Bid-YTW : 5.96 %
TD.PF.B FixedReset -2.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.44
Evaluated at bid price : 19.44
Bid-YTW : 4.21 %
MFC.PR.M FixedReset -2.10 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.08
Bid-YTW : 6.41 %
SLF.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -1.96 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.00
Bid-YTW : 7.50 %
CU.PR.C FixedReset -1.95 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.61
Evaluated at bid price : 19.61
Bid-YTW : 4.22 %
FTS.PR.M FixedReset -1.94 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 20.20
Evaluated at bid price : 20.20
Bid-YTW : 4.33 %
SLF.PR.D Deemed-Retractible -1.91 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.06
Bid-YTW : 7.45 %
BAM.PR.X FixedReset -1.89 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 14.57
Evaluated at bid price : 14.57
Bid-YTW : 4.83 %
FTS.PR.J Perpetual-Discount -1.88 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 20.86
Evaluated at bid price : 20.86
Bid-YTW : 5.76 %
BAM.PF.D Perpetual-Discount -1.87 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 20.50
Evaluated at bid price : 20.50
Bid-YTW : 6.01 %
PWF.PR.P FixedReset -1.87 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 14.72
Evaluated at bid price : 14.72
Bid-YTW : 4.21 %
BIP.PR.A FixedReset -1.86 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 21.10
Evaluated at bid price : 21.10
Bid-YTW : 5.25 %
SLF.PR.B Deemed-Retractible -1.85 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.27
Bid-YTW : 7.04 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset -1.84 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.23
Bid-YTW : 6.09 %
NA.PR.W FixedReset -1.81 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.00
Bid-YTW : 4.33 %
BAM.PF.E FixedReset -1.80 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 18.50
Evaluated at bid price : 18.50
Bid-YTW : 4.93 %
TD.PF.A FixedReset -1.76 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.50
Evaluated at bid price : 19.50
Bid-YTW : 4.21 %
BAM.PR.Z FixedReset -1.63 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.28
Evaluated at bid price : 19.28
Bid-YTW : 5.10 %
GWO.PR.H Deemed-Retractible -1.57 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.90
Bid-YTW : 6.69 %
TRP.PR.A FixedReset -1.50 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 15.09
Evaluated at bid price : 15.09
Bid-YTW : 4.76 %
FTS.PR.G FixedReset -1.45 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 17.05
Evaluated at bid price : 17.05
Bid-YTW : 4.57 %
CM.PR.Q FixedReset -1.37 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 21.55
Evaluated at bid price : 21.55
Bid-YTW : 4.17 %
BAM.PF.A FixedReset -1.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 19.40
Evaluated at bid price : 19.40
Bid-YTW : 4.98 %
TRP.PR.F FloatingReset -1.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 13.57
Evaluated at bid price : 13.57
Bid-YTW : 4.22 %
MFC.PR.I FixedReset -1.29 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.23
Bid-YTW : 5.40 %
TD.PF.F Perpetual-Discount -1.26 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 23.13
Evaluated at bid price : 23.55
Bid-YTW : 5.27 %
MFC.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -1.26 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.45
Bid-YTW : 7.27 %
POW.PR.G Perpetual-Discount -1.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 23.82
Evaluated at bid price : 24.30
Bid-YTW : 5.75 %
TRP.PR.C FixedReset -1.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 12.12
Evaluated at bid price : 12.12
Bid-YTW : 5.00 %
PVS.PR.B SplitShare -1.02 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2019-01-10
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.36
Bid-YTW : 5.31 %
BMO.PR.Q FixedReset -1.01 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.65
Bid-YTW : 5.62 %
TD.PR.S FixedReset 1.08 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.26
Bid-YTW : 3.49 %
GWO.PR.R Deemed-Retractible 1.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.85
Bid-YTW : 6.66 %
BAM.PF.G FixedReset 1.21 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 20.90
Evaluated at bid price : 20.90
Bid-YTW : 4.65 %
BAM.PR.T FixedReset 1.27 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 15.90
Evaluated at bid price : 15.90
Bid-YTW : 5.14 %
NA.PR.Q FixedReset 1.45 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.79
Bid-YTW : 4.42 %
FTS.PR.H FixedReset 1.49 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 13.61
Evaluated at bid price : 13.61
Bid-YTW : 4.30 %
SLF.PR.H FixedReset 1.71 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 17.80
Bid-YTW : 7.44 %
TD.PR.Z FloatingReset 1.90 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 4.22 %
TD.PR.T FloatingReset 2.28 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 4.13 %
POW.PR.A Perpetual-Premium 2.37 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 24.30
Evaluated at bid price : 24.61
Bid-YTW : 5.69 %
HSE.PR.E FixedReset 3.19 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 21.44
Evaluated at bid price : 21.70
Bid-YTW : 5.09 %
IFC.PR.C FixedReset 3.49 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.25
Bid-YTW : 6.96 %
BMO.PR.R FloatingReset 3.57 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.75
Bid-YTW : 4.38 %
MFC.PR.N FixedReset 6.49 % Simply a reversal of the idiotic part of yesterday‘s ridiculous move, which was due to a bad quote.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.70
Bid-YTW : 6.59 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
BMO.PR.R FloatingReset 142,656 Scotia crossed 100,000 at 21.90; TD crossed 40,000 at the same price.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.75
Bid-YTW : 4.38 %
CU.PR.I FixedReset 97,505 Recent new issue.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 23.19
Evaluated at bid price : 25.12
Bid-YTW : 4.38 %
BNS.PR.B FloatingReset 75,500 Scotia crossed blocks of 50,000 and 25,000, both at 21.85.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.80
Bid-YTW : 4.40 %
TD.PR.Z FloatingReset 52,340 TD crossed 49,400 at 22.00.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 4.22 %
TD.PR.T FloatingReset 50,000 TD crossed 49,300 at 22.10.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 4.13 %
GWO.PR.Q Deemed-Retractible 39,557 Scotia crossed 25,000 at 22.90.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.52
Bid-YTW : 6.62 %
There were 52 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
PWF.PR.L Perpetual-Discount Quote: 21.99 – 23.15
Spot Rate : 1.1600
Average : 0.6728

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 21.75
Evaluated at bid price : 21.99
Bid-YTW : 5.89 %

TRP.PR.G FixedReset Quote: 20.05 – 21.20
Spot Rate : 1.1500
Average : 0.7773

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 20.05
Evaluated at bid price : 20.05
Bid-YTW : 4.76 %

BSC.PR.C SplitShare Quote: 19.71 – 20.43
Spot Rate : 0.7200
Average : 0.3909

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2020-09-22
Maturity Price : 19.71
Evaluated at bid price : 19.71
Bid-YTW : 4.03 %

BAM.PF.D Perpetual-Discount Quote: 20.50 – 21.50
Spot Rate : 1.0000
Average : 0.6848

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-25
Maturity Price : 20.50
Evaluated at bid price : 20.50
Bid-YTW : 6.01 %

BNS.PR.D FloatingReset Quote: 19.25 – 19.85
Spot Rate : 0.6000
Average : 0.3580

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.25
Bid-YTW : 5.75 %

BNS.PR.Y FixedReset Quote: 19.95 – 20.50
Spot Rate : 0.5500
Average : 0.3348

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.95
Bid-YTW : 5.72 %

Market Action

September 24, 2015

Janet Yellen gave a speech today:

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the U.S. central bank is on track to raise interest rates this year, even as she acknowledged that economic “surprises” could lead them to change that plan.

“Most FOMC participants, including myself, currently anticipate that achieving these conditions will likely entail an initial increase in the federal funds rate later this year, followed by a gradual pace of tightening thereafter,” Yellen said during a speech Thursday in Amherst, Massachusetts. “But if the economy surprises us, our judgments about appropriate monetary policy will change.”

While “there wasn’t anything significant enough that changed in one week for her to give us a different take,” said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets LLC in New York, Yellen “finally acknowledges that she, specifically, does believe that a rate hike is appropriate this year.”

Porcelli expects a December increase, but thinks there’s a high hurdle to moving this year.

Short-term treasuries were hammered, but the rest of the Treasury market took it in stride:

The U.S. two-year yield climbed four basis points to 0.72 percent as of 6:14 a.m. in London. The price of the 0.625 percent security due September 2017 fell 2/32, or 63 cents per $1,000 face amount, to 99 26/32.

The benchmark 10-year yield rose one basis point to 2.14 percent.

Traders aren’t convinced a rate increase is a sure thing. There’s a 49 percent probability the Fed will raise rates by its Dec. 15-16 meeting, down from 60 percent odds at the end of August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The calculation is based on the assumption that the effective fed funds rate will average 0.375 percent after liftoff.

Treasury 30-year bonds, which are more influenced by the outlook for inflation, eked out a gain. The difference between two- and 30-year yields shrank to as little as 2.19 percentage points, the narrowest since Sept. 8.

Preferred share investors drove to an appointment with their brokers today:

carBomb
Click for Big

(hat tip: adrian2 on FWF)

“But my money!” they cried. “What has happened to my money?”

Massive Preferred Share Wildfire Spreads, Threatening Nearby Towns
Click for Big

It was total carnage for the Canadian preferred share market today, with PerpetualDiscounts down 152bp, FixedResets losing a stunning 338bp and DeemedRetractibles off 92bp. The Performance Highlights table is ridiculous and I’m not even going to try to come to grips with the question of what’s real and what isn’t (except for MFC.PR.N … I couldn’t resist) because the entire market was surreal today. BAM issues were notable losers, but one BAM issue was the sole notable winner! Volume was extremely heavy.

So what caused the problem? Assigning specific reasons to market movements, even dramatic ones is always a bit of a mug’s game; on a day-to-day basis, the market does what it wants to do because it wants to do it. Today the influence might be this, tomorrow that; it’s only in retrospect that you can draw a correlation between the financial markets and the price of eggs in Spain and say wisely how well the market took this driving influence into account. My contempt for the market’s talking heads is mixed with pity; they have to come up with something to fill up their allotted half hour and that’s the end of it.

But it’s reasonable to suppose it was the BAM new issue that broke the camel’s back. 5.00% is a big fat dividend for an investment grade issue and 417bp is a big fat spread and the minimum rate guarantee is a big fat gift for those who seriously believe that GOC-5 can go significantly lower in the next five years (I don’t! But what do I know?). As recently as September 11, when I prepared the September PrefLetter, a spread of 417bp would have implied a yield-to-worst of only 4.49%, although correlations are poor and +417 is the highest extant investment-grade spread by far (so don’t take the decimal places too seriously, is what I’m saying) (the previous high was HSE.PR.E, with an Issue Reset Spread of a mere 357bp). A big fat yield like that could well have caused some repricing of the market as a whole; it is significant that the clobbering of BAM issues today was notable even on a day like today; and the results of that clobbering reverberated throughout the market.

Conspiracy theorists will soon be filling up my mailbox with queries about my opinion regarding the idea that Brookfield did this deliberately so they could buy up their extant issues cheaply under their NCIB, discussed August 12. But really, guys – get serious. The Illuminati would never permit me to give a favourable opinion regarding this thesis.

It is also possible that the credit rating assigned to Element Financial today had an effect; this expands the universe with four FixedResets with very nice yields; it is noteworthy that all four extant EFN issues rose today (on a close/close basis). Volumes were mostly modest, but the most recent issue, EFN.PR.G, traded a significant 35,025 shares. These issues also have high spreads:

The highest Issue Reset Spread on a junk issue previous was a mere 427bp for VSN.PR.E.

I will point out that I’m not the only guy in the universe who holds the disciplinary effects of a public credit rating in high regard – their press release disclosed that:

Concurrent with the receipt of this initial issuer rating from DBRS, the interest rate applicable to the Facility will be reduced by 35 basis points …

So I’ll suggest a strong possibility that this was an aggravating factor.

Another aggravating factor could be quarter-end. I mused that the Swoon in June, 2008, was due at least partly to end of quarter window-dressing by retail stockbrokers and I’ll muse that again. I remember being urged by a putative superior to sell a particular issue simply because it had gone down; the client was going to ask questions. It’s the stupidest rationale ever for market action, but there can be no denying that it’s real! Trades executed today settle September 29; trades executed tomorrow will still result in the position vanishing from quarter-end statements … who knows what might happen?

And finally, there’s the idea that in bad times all correlations go to 1: here’s the chart for TXPR vs. TSX for the past three months (hat tip: OnlyMyOpinion on FWF), which will give joy to the ‘preferreds are bonds on the way up and stocks on the way down’ crowd:

TXPR_TSX_150924_3Mo
Click for Big

But in the end, the market does what it wants to do when it wants to do it. Beyond that, we’re guessing.

For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I’ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets’ Implied Volatilities. This doesn’t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.

Remember that all rich /cheap assessments are:
» based on Implied Volatility Theory only
» are relative only to other FixedResets from the same issuer
» assume constant GOC-5 yield
» assume constant Implied Volatility
» assume constant spread

Here’s TRP:

impVol_TRP_150924
Click for Big

TRP.PR.E, which resets 2019-10-30 at +235, is bid at 19.25 to be $1.17 rich, while TRP.PR.C, resetting 2016-1-30 at +164, is $1.20 cheap at its bid price of 12.25.

impVol_MFC_150924
Click for Big

The MFC fit has been clearly distorted by the lousy and almost certainly grossly erroneous bid on MFC.PR.N (see Performance Highlights table), so we’ll remove it from the fitting and try again.

impVol_MFC_150924A
Click for Big

Another good fit today for MFC, with Implied Volatility leaping upwards today – the lower-spread issues outperformed.

Most expensive is MFC.PR.J, resetting at +261bp on 2018-3-19, bid at 21.75 to be 0.24 rich, while MFC.PR.G, resetting at +290bp on 2016-12-19, is bid at 22.24 to be 0.43 cheap (MFC.PR.N has been ignored)

impVol_BAM_150924
Click for Big

The fit on the BAM issues continues to be horrible. Note that the new issue announced today has been added with a price of 25.00; the valuation effects of the rate floor have been ignored.

The cheapest issue relative to its peers is BAM.PR.R, resetting at +230bp on 2016-6-30, bid at 15.60 to be $1.24 cheap. BAM.PF.G, resetting at +284bp on 2020-6-30 is bid at 20.65 and appears to be $1.00 rich.

impVol_FTS_150924
Click for Big

FTS.PR.M, with a spread of +248bp, and bid at 20.60, looks $0.70 expensive and resets 2019-12-1. FTS.PR.G, with a spread of +213bp and resetting 2018-9-1, is bid at 17.30 and is $0.48 cheap.

pairs_FR_150924
Click for Big

Investment-grade pairs predict an average three-month bill yield over the next five-odd years of -1.05%, with two outliers below -2.00% and two above 0.00%. The distribution’s bimodality has returned, with bank NVCC non-compliant pairs averaging -1.54% and other issues averaging -0.35%. There are two junk outliers above 0.00%.

pairs_FF_150924
Click for Big

Shall we just say that this exhibits a high level of confidence in the continued rapacity of Canadian banks?

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.2885 % 1,639.7
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.2885 % 2,866.9
Floater 4.53 % 4.53 % 60,746 16.37 3 0.2885 % 1,743.1
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.0709 % 2,768.9
SplitShare 4.48 % 4.96 % 64,509 2.08 4 -0.0709 % 3,245.0
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.0709 % 2,531.9
Perpetual-Premium 5.76 % 2.64 % 64,771 0.08 8 -0.4563 % 2,482.7
Perpetual-Discount 5.59 % 5.68 % 68,460 14.38 30 -1.5237 % 2,538.3
FixedReset 4.98 % 4.51 % 176,429 15.47 75 -3.3821 % 2,043.6
Deemed-Retractible 5.22 % 5.09 % 93,716 5.48 33 -0.9241 % 2,548.3
FloatingReset 2.57 % 4.52 % 56,496 5.85 9 -1.9662 % 2,082.3
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
MFC.PR.N FixedReset -10.41 % Not real. The issue traded 10,244 shares today in a range of 20.00-65 before closing at 18.50-20.64 (!). I have not checked whether this lamentable state of affairs is due to inadequate Toronto Stock Exchange reporting or inadequate Toronto Stock Exchange supervision of market-makers.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.50
Bid-YTW : 7.43 %
BAM.PF.F FixedReset -8.43 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.42
Evaluated at bid price : 20.42
Bid-YTW : 4.74 %
BAM.PF.A FixedReset -8.34 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.66
Evaluated at bid price : 19.66
Bid-YTW : 4.91 %
BAM.PF.G FixedReset -7.81 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.65
Evaluated at bid price : 20.65
Bid-YTW : 4.70 %
TD.PF.D FixedReset -7.50 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.52
Evaluated at bid price : 21.83
Bid-YTW : 4.16 %
BMO.PR.Y FixedReset -7.13 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.50
Evaluated at bid price : 21.50
Bid-YTW : 4.28 %
BAM.PF.E FixedReset -6.59 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 18.84
Evaluated at bid price : 18.84
Bid-YTW : 4.84 %
TD.PF.C FixedReset -6.21 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.33
Evaluated at bid price : 19.33
Bid-YTW : 4.22 %
NA.PR.W FixedReset -6.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.35
Evaluated at bid price : 19.35
Bid-YTW : 4.25 %
FTS.PR.H FixedReset -6.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 13.41
Evaluated at bid price : 13.41
Bid-YTW : 4.36 %
BAM.PF.B FixedReset -5.91 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.10
Evaluated at bid price : 19.10
Bid-YTW : 4.73 %
HSE.PR.E FixedReset -5.82 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.03
Evaluated at bid price : 21.03
Bid-YTW : 5.27 %
FTS.PR.G FixedReset -5.46 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 17.30
Evaluated at bid price : 17.30
Bid-YTW : 4.51 %
BMO.PR.R FloatingReset -5.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.00
Bid-YTW : 4.98 %
BAM.PR.X FixedReset -5.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 14.85
Evaluated at bid price : 14.85
Bid-YTW : 4.73 %
GWO.PR.P Deemed-Retractible -5.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.11
Bid-YTW : 6.52 %
FTS.PR.M FixedReset -5.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.60
Evaluated at bid price : 20.60
Bid-YTW : 4.24 %
CM.PR.Q FixedReset -4.97 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.54
Evaluated at bid price : 21.85
Bid-YTW : 4.09 %
BMO.PR.S FixedReset -4.92 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.30
Evaluated at bid price : 20.30
Bid-YTW : 4.11 %
BAM.PR.T FixedReset -4.91 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 15.70
Evaluated at bid price : 15.70
Bid-YTW : 5.21 %
TD.PF.A FixedReset -4.84 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.85
Evaluated at bid price : 19.85
Bid-YTW : 4.13 %
TD.PF.B FixedReset -4.75 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.86
Evaluated at bid price : 19.86
Bid-YTW : 4.12 %
IFC.PR.A FixedReset -4.75 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 15.25
Bid-YTW : 9.49 %
RY.PR.J FixedReset -4.68 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.65
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 4.06 %
RY.PR.Z FixedReset -4.65 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.87
Evaluated at bid price : 19.87
Bid-YTW : 4.07 %
NA.PR.Q FixedReset -4.64 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.45
Bid-YTW : 4.67 %
RY.PR.H FixedReset -4.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.00
Bid-YTW : 4.09 %
RY.PR.M FixedReset -4.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.55
Evaluated at bid price : 21.55
Bid-YTW : 4.07 %
BMO.PR.W FixedReset -4.18 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.69
Evaluated at bid price : 19.69
Bid-YTW : 4.10 %
CM.PR.O FixedReset -4.15 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.21
Evaluated at bid price : 20.21
Bid-YTW : 4.06 %
BMO.PR.T FixedReset -3.98 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.00
Bid-YTW : 4.07 %
TD.PR.Z FloatingReset -3.96 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.59
Bid-YTW : 4.54 %
SLF.PR.I FixedReset -3.89 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.00
Bid-YTW : 6.59 %
BAM.PR.R FixedReset -3.88 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 15.60
Evaluated at bid price : 15.60
Bid-YTW : 5.14 %
MFC.PR.J FixedReset -3.76 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.75
Bid-YTW : 5.41 %
FTS.PR.K FixedReset -3.75 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 17.20
Evaluated at bid price : 17.20
Bid-YTW : 4.50 %
TRP.PR.G FixedReset -3.62 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.01
Evaluated at bid price : 21.01
Bid-YTW : 4.54 %
TRP.PR.B FixedReset -3.62 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 11.97
Evaluated at bid price : 11.97
Bid-YTW : 4.42 %
TD.PF.E FixedReset -3.41 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 22.39
Evaluated at bid price : 23.21
Bid-YTW : 3.96 %
TD.PR.T FloatingReset -3.37 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.51
Bid-YTW : 4.52 %
NA.PR.S FixedReset -3.29 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.84
Evaluated at bid price : 20.84
Bid-YTW : 4.10 %
POW.PR.A Perpetual-Premium -3.26 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.73
Evaluated at bid price : 24.04
Bid-YTW : 5.83 %
IFC.PR.C FixedReset -3.23 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.60
Bid-YTW : 7.42 %
CM.PR.P FixedReset -3.12 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.50
Evaluated at bid price : 19.50
Bid-YTW : 4.11 %
MFC.PR.H FixedReset -3.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.64
Bid-YTW : 4.81 %
GWO.PR.N FixedReset -3.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 14.00
Bid-YTW : 9.36 %
GWO.PR.Q Deemed-Retractible -3.08 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.63
Bid-YTW : 6.55 %
TRP.PR.E FixedReset -3.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.25
Evaluated at bid price : 19.25
Bid-YTW : 4.48 %
BAM.PF.D Perpetual-Discount -3.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.89
Evaluated at bid price : 20.89
Bid-YTW : 5.90 %
PWF.PR.S Perpetual-Discount -2.97 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.26
Evaluated at bid price : 21.54
Bid-YTW : 5.65 %
RY.PR.O Perpetual-Discount -2.89 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.09
Evaluated at bid price : 23.50
Bid-YTW : 5.28 %
BAM.PF.C Perpetual-Discount -2.80 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.48
Evaluated at bid price : 20.48
Bid-YTW : 5.96 %
TRP.PR.C FixedReset -2.78 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 12.25
Evaluated at bid price : 12.25
Bid-YTW : 4.95 %
TRP.PR.A FixedReset -2.73 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 15.32
Evaluated at bid price : 15.32
Bid-YTW : 4.69 %
TRP.PR.D FixedReset -2.72 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 18.61
Evaluated at bid price : 18.61
Bid-YTW : 4.57 %
PWF.PR.T FixedReset -2.49 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.93
Evaluated at bid price : 22.28
Bid-YTW : 3.79 %
MFC.PR.G FixedReset -2.46 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.24
Bid-YTW : 5.36 %
BAM.PR.N Perpetual-Discount -2.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.35
Evaluated at bid price : 20.35
Bid-YTW : 5.87 %
POW.PR.D Perpetual-Discount -2.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.72
Evaluated at bid price : 21.97
Bid-YTW : 5.69 %
CU.PR.C FixedReset -2.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.00
Bid-YTW : 4.13 %
VNR.PR.A FixedReset -2.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.35
Evaluated at bid price : 19.35
Bid-YTW : 4.88 %
SLF.PR.E Deemed-Retractible -2.28 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.60
Bid-YTW : 7.14 %
BMO.PR.Z Perpetual-Discount -2.20 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.67
Evaluated at bid price : 24.00
Bid-YTW : 5.28 %
MFC.PR.I FixedReset -2.13 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.52
Bid-YTW : 5.23 %
RY.PR.N Perpetual-Discount -2.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.48
Evaluated at bid price : 23.79
Bid-YTW : 5.27 %
PWF.PR.F Perpetual-Discount -2.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.11
Evaluated at bid price : 23.37
Bid-YTW : 5.70 %
GWO.PR.S Deemed-Retractible -2.03 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.18
Bid-YTW : 6.32 %
MFC.PR.L FixedReset -2.00 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.60
Bid-YTW : 6.55 %
SLF.PR.B Deemed-Retractible -1.99 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.67
Bid-YTW : 6.77 %
TD.PF.F Perpetual-Discount -1.97 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.53
Evaluated at bid price : 23.85
Bid-YTW : 5.21 %
MFC.PR.B Deemed-Retractible -1.97 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.37
Bid-YTW : 6.82 %
CU.PR.D Perpetual-Discount -1.94 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.43
Evaluated at bid price : 21.75
Bid-YTW : 5.68 %
SLF.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -1.92 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.40
Bid-YTW : 7.22 %
BNS.PR.B FloatingReset -1.90 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.68
Bid-YTW : 4.49 %
GWO.PR.G Deemed-Retractible -1.88 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.02
Bid-YTW : 6.37 %
SLF.PR.A Deemed-Retractible -1.87 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.52
Bid-YTW : 6.82 %
MFC.PR.M FixedReset -1.87 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.51
Bid-YTW : 6.12 %
PWF.PR.K Perpetual-Discount -1.86 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.88
Evaluated at bid price : 22.12
Bid-YTW : 5.68 %
W.PR.J Perpetual-Discount -1.84 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.68
Evaluated at bid price : 23.95
Bid-YTW : 5.96 %
IAG.PR.G FixedReset -1.77 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.26
Bid-YTW : 5.31 %
CU.PR.G Perpetual-Discount -1.70 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.20
Evaluated at bid price : 20.20
Bid-YTW : 5.63 %
SLF.PR.D Deemed-Retractible -1.68 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.45
Bid-YTW : 7.18 %
ENB.PR.A Perpetual-Discount -1.67 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.85
Evaluated at bid price : 24.10
Bid-YTW : 5.76 %
RY.PR.W Perpetual-Discount -1.65 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.53
Evaluated at bid price : 23.80
Bid-YTW : 5.19 %
PWF.PR.P FixedReset -1.64 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 15.00
Evaluated at bid price : 15.00
Bid-YTW : 4.13 %
BIP.PR.A FixedReset -1.60 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.50
Evaluated at bid price : 21.50
Bid-YTW : 5.15 %
CU.PR.E Perpetual-Discount -1.59 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.36
Evaluated at bid price : 21.65
Bid-YTW : 5.71 %
FTS.PR.J Perpetual-Discount -1.57 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.26
Evaluated at bid price : 21.26
Bid-YTW : 5.65 %
BAM.PR.M Perpetual-Discount -1.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.51
Evaluated at bid price : 20.51
Bid-YTW : 5.83 %
GWO.PR.H Deemed-Retractible -1.37 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.25
Bid-YTW : 6.46 %
BMO.PR.Q FixedReset -1.37 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.86
Bid-YTW : 5.43 %
BNS.PR.A FloatingReset -1.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.58
Bid-YTW : 4.16 %
MFC.PR.K FixedReset -1.26 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.60
Bid-YTW : 6.46 %
BNS.PR.Y FixedReset -1.20 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.50
Bid-YTW : 5.25 %
POW.PR.B Perpetual-Discount -1.18 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.20
Evaluated at bid price : 23.50
Bid-YTW : 5.69 %
ELF.PR.H Perpetual-Discount -1.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.41
Evaluated at bid price : 23.85
Bid-YTW : 5.86 %
PWF.PR.L Perpetual-Discount -1.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 22.75
Evaluated at bid price : 23.03
Bid-YTW : 5.62 %
GWO.PR.R Deemed-Retractible -1.14 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.61
Bid-YTW : 6.81 %
RY.PR.I FixedReset -1.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.00
Bid-YTW : 3.96 %
HSE.PR.G FixedReset -1.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.86
Evaluated at bid price : 22.30
Bid-YTW : 4.93 %
GWO.PR.I Deemed-Retractible -1.02 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.31
Bid-YTW : 6.67 %
BAM.PR.Z FixedReset 1.29 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.60
Evaluated at bid price : 19.60
Bid-YTW : 5.02 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
CU.PR.I FixedReset 973,025 New issue settled today.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.18
Evaluated at bid price : 25.08
Bid-YTW : 4.39 %
NA.PR.M Deemed-Retractible 325,596 Called for redemption.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2015-10-24
Maturity Price : 25.50
Evaluated at bid price : 25.80
Bid-YTW : -0.59 %
BAM.PF.A FixedReset 86,627 CIBC crossed 31,200 at 20.40.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 19.66
Evaluated at bid price : 19.66
Bid-YTW : 4.91 %
MFC.PR.H FixedReset 84,372 RBC crossed 73,800 at 24.40.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.64
Bid-YTW : 4.81 %
BAM.PF.G FixedReset 84,356 RBC bought 16,800 from anonymous at 22.31.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 20.65
Evaluated at bid price : 20.65
Bid-YTW : 4.70 %
BNS.PR.B FloatingReset 50,163 Scotia crossed 48,200 at 21.75.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.68
Bid-YTW : 4.49 %
There were 57 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
MFC.PR.N FixedReset Quote: 18.50 – 20.64
Spot Rate : 2.1400
Average : 1.1813

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.50
Bid-YTW : 7.43 %

BMO.PR.R FloatingReset Quote: 21.00 – 22.10
Spot Rate : 1.1000
Average : 0.6408

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.00
Bid-YTW : 4.98 %

TD.PF.D FixedReset Quote: 21.83 – 22.83
Spot Rate : 1.0000
Average : 0.6186

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.52
Evaluated at bid price : 21.83
Bid-YTW : 4.16 %

BMO.PR.Y FixedReset Quote: 21.50 – 22.50
Spot Rate : 1.0000
Average : 0.6325

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.50
Evaluated at bid price : 21.50
Bid-YTW : 4.28 %

HSE.PR.E FixedReset Quote: 21.03 – 22.00
Spot Rate : 0.9700
Average : 0.6305

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 21.03
Evaluated at bid price : 21.03
Bid-YTW : 5.27 %

GWO.PR.P Deemed-Retractible Quote: 23.11 – 23.83
Spot Rate : 0.7200
Average : 0.4373

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.11
Bid-YTW : 6.52 %

Issue Comments

CU.PR.I Firm On Excellent Volume

Canadian Utilities Limited has announced:

it has closed its previously announced public offering of Cumulative Redeemable Second Preferred Shares Series FF, by a syndicate of underwriters co-led by BMO Capital Markets and RBC Capital Markets, and including TD Securities Inc., Scotiabank, CIBC, Canaccord Genuity Corp., and GMP Securities L.P. Canadian Utilities Limited issued 10,000,000 Series FF Preferred Shares for gross proceeds of $250,000,000. The Series FF Preferred Shares will begin trading on the TSX today under the symbol CU.PR.I. The proceeds will be used for capital expenditures, to repay indebtedness and for other general corporate purposes.

CU.PR.I is a FixedReset, 4.50%+369M450, announced September 14. It will be tracked by HIMIPref™ and has been assigned to the FixedReset subindex.

The issue traded 973,025 shares today (consolidated exchanges) in a range of 24.97-19 before closing at 25.08-12, 24×26. Vital statistics are:

CU.PR.I FixedReset YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-24
Maturity Price : 23.18
Evaluated at bid price : 25.08
Bid-YTW : 4.39 %
Data Changes

EFN Receives Pfd-3 Rating From DBRS; Issues Will Be Added To HIMIPref™

Element Financial Corporation has announced:

that it has received an initial issuer rating of BBB from DBRS Limited (DBRS). The Company also was awarded a rating of R-2 (middle) on its short-term instruments and a rating of Pfd-3 on its perpetual preferred shares. All three ratings were issued with a stable outlook. Notwithstanding the R-2 rating, granted by DBRS, Element does not plan to access the short-term debt market for its funding requirements.

On August 24, 2015, Element entered into a Credit Agreement (the “Facility”) with a syndicate of 24 lenders that provides the Company with an expanded US$8.5 billion senior secured three-year credit facility. Concurrent with the receipt of this initial issuer rating from DBRS, the interest rate applicable to the Facility will be reduced by 35 basis points on top of the 20 basis point reduction that came into effect when the Company closed the US portion of the acquisition of GE Capital’s fleet management business on August 31, 2015

Following the August 31, 2015 closing of the Company’s acquisition of the US operations of GE Capital’s fleet management business, Element’s committed funding facilities amounted to C$21.9 billion inclusive of the above referenced US$8.5 billion senior secured three-year credit facility. These facilities are supplemented with funding from the asset-backed securitization market which the Company has accessed to fund earning assets and revenue activities in its various business activities together with funding from its various private securitization conduits.

The DBRS Press Release states:

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned an Issuer Rating of BBB to Element Financial Corporation (Element or the Company). Concurrently, DBRS has assigned a Short-Term Instruments rating of R-2 (middle) and a rating of Pfd-3 to the Company’s Perpetual Preferred Shares. The trend on all ratings is Stable.

The ratings reflect the Company’s strengthening franchise, which is anchored by Element’s leading position in North American fleet management and a growing presence in railcar leasing. The Company’s better than average credit risk profile, and developing and strengthening earnings profile are also considered in the ratings. These factors are offset by the Company’s reliance on secured funding sources, its appetite for growth through acquisitions, and the integration and execution risks present in the recent acquisition of GE Capital’s fleet management business (GE Fleet).

The Stable trend reflects DBRS’s expectations that Element will successfully integrate the GE Fleet business, while strengthening its earnings profile as earnings assets grow and the Company improves its penetration rate within its fleet customers. While near-term upward ratings migration is unlikely, over the medium-term, ratings could be positively impacted by further earnings expansion while credit costs remain within historical levels and operating efficiency improves. A more balanced funding profile and leverage maintained at or below industry peers would be viewed favorably. Conversely, a noteworthy increase in leverage, sustained deterioration in operating performance, or indications of mis-steps in the GE Fleet integration evidenced by loss of key customers or operational-related charges could result in negative ratings pressure. Ratings could also be pressured by a material acquisition that DBRS views as outside of Element’s core verticals and capabilities.

DBRS considers Element’s funding and liquidity profile as appropriately managed and aligned with the asset base. However, DBRS views the reliance on secured forms of wholesale funding as limiting financial flexibility and a constraint on the ratings. While Element has made some progress in diversifying funding by issuing convertible corporate debt and preferred shares, 91% of total funding is from secured forms funding. As a result, at June 30, 2015, 73% of Element’s adjusted assets (total assets excluding cash held in escrow for acquisition, investment funds, intangible assets and goodwill) were encumbered. Over the longer-term, DBRS expects that Element will look to improve its financial flexibility by introducing senior unsecured corporate debt into its funding mix. Liquidity is largely comprised of unrestricted cash and capacity under its bank facilities. At June 30, 2015, available liquidity totaled $3.2 billion, which DBRS believes is more than sufficient to fund expected originations over the next year.

From DBRS’s perspective, Element’s balance sheet management is acceptable given the risk profile inherent in the balance sheet. Tangible leverage is in line with industry peers at 5.3x, pro-forma to the GE Fleet acquisition, and within maximum covenant limits of 6.0x.

The company has four series of preferred shares outstanding:

These issues will be added to the HIMIPref™ database over the weekend.

New Issues

New Issue: BAM FixedReset, 5.00%+417M500

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has announced:

that it has agreed to issue 6,000,000 Class A Preferred Shares, Series 44 on a bought deal basis to a syndicate of underwriters led by Scotiabank, CIBC, RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities Inc. for distribution to the public. The Preferred Shares, Series 44 will be issued at a price of C$25.00 per share, for gross proceeds of C$150,000,000. Holders of the Preferred Shares, Series 44 will be entitled to receive a cumulative quarterly fixed dividend yielding 5.00% annually for the initial period ending December 31, 2020. Thereafter, the dividend rate will be reset every five years at a rate equal to the greater of: (i) the 5-year Government of Canada bond yield plus 4.17%, and (ii) 5.00%.

Brookfield has granted the underwriters an option, exercisable until 48 hours prior to closing, to purchase up to an additional 2,000,000 Preferred Shares, Series 44 which, if exercised, would increase the gross offering size to C$200,000,000. The Preferred Shares, Series 44 will be offered in all provinces of Canada by way of a supplement to Brookfield’s existing short form base shelf prospectus. The Preferred Shares, Series 44 may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements under the U.S. Securities Act.

Brookfield intends to use the net proceeds of the issue of Preferred Shares, Series 44 for general corporate purposes. The offering of Preferred Shares, Series 44 is expected to close on or about October 2, 2015.

The rate floor seems to have made it a popular issue! They later announced:

that as a result of strong investor demand for its previously announced offering it has agreed to increase the size of the offering to 10,000,000 Class A Preferred Shares, Series 44. The Preferred Shares, Series 44 will be issued at a price of C$25.00 per share, for gross proceeds of C$250,000,000. There will not be an underwriters’ option as was previously granted. The Preferred Shares, Series 44 are being offered on a bought deal basis by a syndicate of underwriters led by Scotiabank, CIBC, RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities Inc.

The Rate-Floor provision was recently introduced with the announcement of the CU FixedReset, 4.50%+369M450, which settled firm today on good volume. It will be noted that there is no floor rate on the BAM issue’s Strong Pair FloatingReset counterpart, which is the same as the CU issue.

Implied Volatility analysis indicates that the issue is priced fairly at the close today, after all the carnage amongst the BAM FixedResets on the day. There are two major caveats to this conclusion, beyond the usual warnings about Implied Volatility analysis:

  • At 13% the indicated Implied Volatility is higher than I would expect for truly perpetual FixedResets. A decline in this value would be correlated with underperformance by lower spread issues.
  • No allowance is made in this analysis for the rate floor, either in terms of expected dividend or of value. I don’t think the floor has much value in this environment, but it surely must have some!
impVol_BAM_150924
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However, the tentative conclusion that the new issue is fairly priced despite the day’s carnage suggests we might be back to the Credit Crunch new issue paradigm: new issues are offered with a concession, as usual, but instead of settling with a slight premium, as is the intent, they might be projected to settle at par with the rest of the market having gone down in price! This can be taken as an indication that it has become awfully difficult to attract new capital to the preferred share marketplace.

New Issues

New Issue: RY Straight, 5.25%, NVCC

Royal Bank of Canada has announced:

announced a domestic public offering of Non-Cumulative, Preferred Shares Series BJ.

Royal Bank of Canada will issue 6 million Preferred Shares Series BJ priced at $25 per share to raise gross proceeds of $150 million. The bank has granted the Underwriters an option, exercisable in whole or in part, to purchase up to an additional 2 million Preferred Shares Series BJ at the same offering price.

The Preferred Shares Series BJ will yield 5.25 per cent annually, payable quarterly, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of Royal Bank of Canada.

Subject to regulatory approval, on or after February 24, 2021, the bank may redeem the Preferred Shares Series BJ in whole or in part at a declining premium.

The offering will be underwritten by a syndicate led by RBC Capital Markets. The expected closing date is October 2, 2015.

We routinely undertake funding transactions to maintain strong capital ratios and a cost effective capital structure. Net proceeds from this transaction will be used for general business purposes.

It’s nice to see another Straight!

Implied Volatility analysis shows that market differentiation between NVCC compliant and non-compliant issues is significant:

impVol_RYStraight__All_150924
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When only the NVCC-compliant issues are used for fitting, it appears that Implied Volatility is very low (which suggests that the relationship will steepen somewhat in the future) implying that higher-coupon issues are relatively expensive. However, there are only four data points to support this conclusion and the variety of coupon rates is minimal, so don’t mortgage the farm!

impVol_RYStraight__NVCC_150924
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Market Action

September 23, 2015

It looks like we have a few more weeks of the entertaining Sprott-Spicer battle to look forward to, as Silver Bullion Trust points out (bolding from original):

Silver Bullion Trust (“SBT”) (symbol: TSX – SBT.UN (C$) SBT.U (US$)) today noted that Sprott Asset Management LP and Sprott Physical Silver Trust (collectively, “Sprott”) have failed by a substantial margin to achieve sufficient support from SBT Unitholders to complete their offer. As a result, Sprott has yet again extended their inadequate, hostile offer to acquire all of the outstanding Units of SBT. They have made no improvement to the terms of their offer, which is now set to expire on October 9, 2015.

Since May 27th, Sprott has harassed SBT Unitholders and their intermediaries with misleading information about Sprott’s offer and defamatory comments about SBT, its Trustees and its administrator. The majority of SBT Unitholders have consistently said “NO” to Sprott’s offer and have clearly expressed the view that they wish to continue to remain SBT Unitholders.

SBT is concerned that some brokers may have misled their Unitholder clients into believing that they must choose one of the two tendering options, and could not “do nothing” in response to Sprott’s offer. SBT Unitholders are reminded that they are NOT REQUIRED to tender their Units to Sprott, regardless of what brokers may say. If instructed by a broker that tendering is required or that Unitholders cannot “do nothing,” please call D.F. King & Co at 1-800-398-2816 for assistance.

Unitholders who have refused to tender are urged to retain their SBT Units and not tender to Sprott’s offer. Sprott’s offer cannot succeed unless 662/3% of the Units are actually tendered, which has not been achieved.

During the Credit Crunch there was a notable amount of “jingle-mail” in the States – that being the sobriquet for the act of abandoning your house and sending the keys to the (underwater) mortgage servicer. I advocated – and continue to advocate – for a mortgage system in which the standard is ‘with recourse’ to the homeowner, i.e., that the homeowner is on the hook for the entire amount and that if the house doesn’t cover his balance due, that’s his tough luck.

But the Mayor of Barcelona points out that this can lead to social unrest in a broad market decline:

Under Spanish law, when a bank forecloses on a mortgage and seizes a house or apartment, only part of the debt is wiped out. The rest remains on the books, and the owner isn’t able to declare bankruptcy to escape the debt. The bank has claim to all assets, not just the house.

“The president of the government had explicitly told the population, ‘You have to buy a house because it’s the most secure investment, the best thing for your country,’ ” says Colau. “Millions of people who weren’t trying to speculate, or to be rich, but who thought they were doing the most responsible thing, the safest thing, discovered that they had done the worst thing in their lives, and that there was no way to escape.”

In 2009, Colau and a handful of other activists formed a grassroots organization called the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages—known by its Spanish acronym PAH. “She’s a natural leader,” says Lucía Martín, one of the group’s founders. “It’s not that she says, ‘OK, I’m going to be the leader.’ It’s that everybody looks around and says, ‘Yes. Her. She looks like she can do it.’ It became really obvious.”

One of the first people PAH assisted was Matías González Barquero, who had taken out a mortgage on his home to soundproof his bar at the request of the municipality. González was forced to close the bar in 2009 after a partner died and another fell sick. As a small-business owner, he was ineligible for unemployment, and soon he couldn’t pay his mortgage.

When he attended his first PAH meeting in 2010, his apartment had already been put up for auction, but it had failed to sell, and he hadn’t moved out. When González was scheduled to be evicted by police in March 2010, the group obtained a period of leniency from a judge. Over the next year and a half, PAH blocked two other eviction attempts, mobilizing some 300 people to block the entrance to his apartment. Colau was with González in his house, coordinating the protest from behind locked doors. “She said, ‘You keep calm, we’re going to make it,’ ” recalls González. “When she was facing the banks, she was very tough. But with me, she was a very close person.”

In other geopolitical news (since preferred shares are, you know, kinda boring) it looks like the group that takes decisive action against ISIS will be one with interests that are almost as antithetical to ours:

President Vladimir Putin, determined to strengthen Russia’s only military outpost in the Middle East, is preparing to launch unilateral airstrikes against Islamic State from inside Syria if the U.S. rejects his proposal to join forces, two people familiar with the matter said.

Putin’s preferred course of action, though, is for America and its allies to agree to coordinate their campaign against the terrorist group with Russia, Iran and the Syrian army, which the Obama administration has so far resisted, according to a person close to the Kremlin and an adviser to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.

Russian diplomacy has shifted into overdrive as Putin seeks to avoid the collapse of the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad, a longtime ally who’s fighting both a 4 1/2 year civil war and Sunni extremists under the banner of Islamic State. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow for talks with Putin on Monday, followed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.

Stop dilly-dallying! Smash ISIS now!

There was carnage for the Canadian preferred share market today, with PerpetualDiscounts down 61bp, FixedResets losing 70bp and DeemedRetractibles off 16bp. As one might expect, the Performance Highlights table is both enormous and dominated by losing FixedResets. Volume was very low.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.61%, equivalent to 7.29% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long corporates now yield a hair under 4.2%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (in this context, the “Seniority Spread”) is now about 310bp, a significant rise from the 300bp reported September 9.

For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I’ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets’ Implied Volatilities. This doesn’t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.

Remember that all rich /cheap assessments are:
» based on Implied Volatility Theory only
» are relative only to other FixedResets from the same issuer
» assume constant GOC-5 yield
» assume constant Implied Volatility
» assume constant spread

Here’s TRP:

impVol_TRP_150923
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TRP.PR.E, which resets 2019-10-30 at +235, is bid at 19.86 to be $1.21 rich, while TRP.PR.C, resetting 2016-1-30 at +164, is $1.29 cheap at its bid price of 12.60.

impVol_MFC_150923
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Another good fit today for MFC, with Implied Volatility unchanged today.

Most expensive is MFC.PR.J, resetting at +261bp on 2018-3-19, bid at 22.60 to be 0.52 rich, while MFC.PR.G, resetting at +290bp on 2016-12-19, is bid at 22.80 to be 0.57 cheap.

impVol_BAM_150923
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The fit on the BAM issues continues to be horrible.

The cheapest issue relative to its peers is BAM.PR.Z (with a lousy bid, discussed in the Performance Highlights table), resetting at +296bp on 2017-12-31, bid at 19.40 to be $2.26 cheap. BAM.PF.G, resetting at +284bp on 2020-6-30 is bid at 22.40 and appears to be $1.47 rich.

impVol_FTS_150923
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FTS.PR.M, with a spread of +248bp, and bid at 21.70, looks $0.77 expensive and resets 2019-12-1. FTS.PR.G, with a spread of +213bp and resetting 2018-9-1, is bid at 18.30 and is $0.40 cheap.

pairs_FR_150923
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Investment-grade pairs predict an average three-month bill yield over the next five-odd years of -0.87%, with no outliers. The distribution’s bimodality has returned, with bank NVCC non-compliant pairs averaging -1.06% and other issues averaging -0.59%. There are two junk outliers above 0.00%.

pairs_FF_150923
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Shall we just say that this exhibits a high level of confidence in the continued rapacity of Canadian banks?

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.7949 % 1,635.0
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.7949 % 2,858.7
Floater 4.54 % 4.55 % 60,472 16.34 3 -0.7949 % 1,738.1
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.0386 % 2,770.9
SplitShare 4.48 % 4.88 % 62,106 2.08 4 0.0386 % 3,247.3
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.0386 % 2,533.7
Perpetual-Premium 5.73 % 1.47 % 57,128 0.08 8 -0.1733 % 2,494.1
Perpetual-Discount 5.50 % 5.61 % 66,431 14.46 30 -0.6118 % 2,577.6
FixedReset 4.81 % 4.29 % 171,798 15.69 74 -0.6967 % 2,115.2
Deemed-Retractible 5.17 % 4.75 % 91,626 5.47 33 -0.1643 % 2,572.0
FloatingReset 2.52 % 4.16 % 55,150 5.88 9 -0.0720 % 2,124.1
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
BAM.PR.Z FixedReset -6.97 % Some might call this technically real since the issue traded 7,542 shares in a range of 19.00-20.82, but the trade at 19.00 was for 600 shares and occurred at 3:54pm, the same timestamp as the trade preceding it, 800 shares at 20.25. The VWAP was 20.52, while the closing quote was 19.35-15. I’m willing to listen to stories, but for now I’m going to mark this down as an example of shoddy market-making.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 19.35
Evaluated at bid price : 19.35
Bid-YTW : 5.08 %
FTS.PR.K FixedReset -3.41 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 17.87
Evaluated at bid price : 17.87
Bid-YTW : 4.33 %
FTS.PR.J Perpetual-Discount -3.27 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 21.32
Evaluated at bid price : 21.60
Bid-YTW : 5.54 %
TRP.PR.F FloatingReset -3.17 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 13.75
Evaluated at bid price : 13.75
Bid-YTW : 4.16 %
BAM.PR.T FixedReset -2.88 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 16.51
Evaluated at bid price : 16.51
Bid-YTW : 4.95 %
BAM.PR.R FixedReset -2.58 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 16.23
Evaluated at bid price : 16.23
Bid-YTW : 4.94 %
FTS.PR.F Perpetual-Discount -2.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 21.70
Evaluated at bid price : 21.95
Bid-YTW : 5.63 %
IFC.PR.C FixedReset -2.39 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 19.22
Bid-YTW : 6.98 %
PWF.PR.P FixedReset -2.37 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 15.25
Evaluated at bid price : 15.25
Bid-YTW : 4.06 %
FTS.PR.G FixedReset -2.14 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 18.30
Evaluated at bid price : 18.30
Bid-YTW : 4.25 %
MFC.PR.F FixedReset -2.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 14.98
Bid-YTW : 8.79 %
CU.PR.F Perpetual-Discount -1.94 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.20
Evaluated at bid price : 20.20
Bid-YTW : 5.63 %
TD.PF.C FixedReset -1.86 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.61
Evaluated at bid price : 20.61
Bid-YTW : 3.95 %
BAM.PR.M Perpetual-Discount -1.84 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.81
Evaluated at bid price : 20.81
Bid-YTW : 5.74 %
NA.PR.W FixedReset -1.81 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.62
Evaluated at bid price : 20.62
Bid-YTW : 3.98 %
TD.PF.B FixedReset -1.70 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.85
Evaluated at bid price : 20.85
Bid-YTW : 3.92 %
BAM.PF.C Perpetual-Discount -1.63 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 21.07
Evaluated at bid price : 21.07
Bid-YTW : 5.79 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset -1.52 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.77
Bid-YTW : 5.62 %
GWO.PR.I Deemed-Retractible -1.51 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.53
Bid-YTW : 6.53 %
MFC.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -1.46 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.89
Bid-YTW : 6.97 %
MFC.PR.I FixedReset -1.46 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.01
Bid-YTW : 4.94 %
BAM.PR.C Floater -1.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 10.30
Evaluated at bid price : 10.30
Bid-YTW : 4.59 %
TRP.PR.C FixedReset -1.41 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 12.60
Evaluated at bid price : 12.60
Bid-YTW : 4.81 %
PWF.PR.K Perpetual-Discount -1.40 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 22.27
Evaluated at bid price : 22.54
Bid-YTW : 5.57 %
POW.PR.D Perpetual-Discount -1.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 22.25
Evaluated at bid price : 22.52
Bid-YTW : 5.55 %
GWO.PR.R Deemed-Retractible -1.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.86
Bid-YTW : 6.65 %
BMO.PR.S FixedReset -1.29 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 21.35
Evaluated at bid price : 21.35
Bid-YTW : 3.90 %
RY.PR.H FixedReset -1.27 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.93
Evaluated at bid price : 20.93
Bid-YTW : 3.90 %
RY.PR.Z FixedReset -1.23 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.84
Evaluated at bid price : 20.84
Bid-YTW : 3.88 %
BAM.PF.B FixedReset -1.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.30
Evaluated at bid price : 20.30
Bid-YTW : 4.44 %
BNS.PR.Y FixedReset -1.19 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.75
Bid-YTW : 5.04 %
SLF.PR.I FixedReset -1.19 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.81
Bid-YTW : 6.05 %
TD.PF.A FixedReset -1.18 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.86
Evaluated at bid price : 20.86
Bid-YTW : 3.92 %
CM.PR.P FixedReset -1.12 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.37
Evaluated at bid price : 20.37
Bid-YTW : 4.00 %
HSE.PR.A FixedReset -1.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 13.40
Evaluated at bid price : 13.40
Bid-YTW : 4.89 %
BMO.PR.W FixedReset -1.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.55
Evaluated at bid price : 20.55
Bid-YTW : 3.92 %
SLF.PR.H FixedReset -1.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 17.51
Bid-YTW : 7.65 %
RY.PR.M FixedReset -1.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 21.97
Evaluated at bid price : 22.50
Bid-YTW : 3.85 %
PWF.PR.T FixedReset 1.02 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 22.31
Evaluated at bid price : 22.85
Bid-YTW : 3.67 %
TD.PF.D FixedReset 1.29 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 22.60
Evaluated at bid price : 23.60
Bid-YTW : 3.79 %
BAM.PR.X FixedReset 1.29 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 15.65
Evaluated at bid price : 15.65
Bid-YTW : 4.48 %
BMO.PR.T FixedReset 1.36 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.83
Evaluated at bid price : 20.83
Bid-YTW : 3.90 %
SLF.PR.J FloatingReset 1.80 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 12.98
Bid-YTW : 9.73 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
TRP.PR.E FixedReset 34,835 Desjardins crossed 11,700 at 19.90.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 19.86
Evaluated at bid price : 19.86
Bid-YTW : 4.34 %
BAM.PR.B Floater 33,881 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 10.50
Evaluated at bid price : 10.50
Bid-YTW : 4.50 %
SLF.PR.J FloatingReset 29,899 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 12.98
Bid-YTW : 9.73 %
TRP.PR.F FloatingReset 29,350 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 13.75
Evaluated at bid price : 13.75
Bid-YTW : 4.16 %
BAM.PF.A FixedReset 21,150 RBC crossed 17,000 at 21.55.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 21.45
Evaluated at bid price : 21.45
Bid-YTW : 4.49 %
TRP.PR.A FixedReset 20,887 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 15.75
Evaluated at bid price : 15.75
Bid-YTW : 4.56 %
There were 16 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
MFC.PR.L FixedReset Quote: 20.00 – 22.25
Spot Rate : 2.2500
Average : 1.2387

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.00
Bid-YTW : 6.28 %

BAM.PR.Z FixedReset Quote: 19.35 – 20.15
Spot Rate : 0.8000
Average : 0.4722

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 19.35
Evaluated at bid price : 19.35
Bid-YTW : 5.08 %

BAM.PR.X FixedReset Quote: 15.65 – 16.18
Spot Rate : 0.5300
Average : 0.3553

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 15.65
Evaluated at bid price : 15.65
Bid-YTW : 4.48 %

SLF.PR.H FixedReset Quote: 17.51 – 18.00
Spot Rate : 0.4900
Average : 0.3488

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 17.51
Bid-YTW : 7.65 %

BAM.PR.M Perpetual-Discount Quote: 20.81 – 21.25
Spot Rate : 0.4400
Average : 0.3199

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 20.81
Evaluated at bid price : 20.81
Bid-YTW : 5.74 %

FTS.PR.G FixedReset Quote: 18.30 – 18.70
Spot Rate : 0.4000
Average : 0.2891

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-09-23
Maturity Price : 18.30
Evaluated at bid price : 18.30
Bid-YTW : 4.25 %

Issue Comments

FFH Renews NCIB: Bid For FFH.PR.E Was Real

Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited has announced (emphasis added):

that the Toronto Stock Exchange (the “TSX”) accepted a notice filed by Fairfax of its intention to commence a Normal Course Issuer Bid for its Subordinate Voting Shares, Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series C (“Series C Shares”), Cumulative Floating Rate Preferred Shares, Series D (“Series D Shares”), Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series E (“Series E Shares”), Cumulative Floating Rate Preferred Shares, Series F (“Series F Shares”), Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series G (“Series G Shares”), Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series I (“Series I Shares”), Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series K (“Series K Shares”) and Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series M (“Series M Shares” and, together with the Series C Shares, Series D Shares, Series E Shares, Series F Shares, Series G Shares, Series I Shares and Series K Shares, the “Preferred Shares”) through the facilities of the TSX (or other alternative Canadian trading systems). Purchases will be made in accordance with the rules and policies of the TSX and Subordinate Voting Shares and Preferred Shares purchased will be cancelled.

The notice provides that Fairfax’s board of directors has approved the purchase on the TSX, during the period commencing September 28, 2015 and ending September 27, 2016, of up to 800,000 Subordinate Voting Shares, 601,538 Series C Shares, 398,361 Series D Shares, 405,134 Series E Shares, 357,204 Series F Shares, 1,000,000 Series G Shares, 1,200,000 Series I Shares, 950,000 Series K Shares and 920,000 Series M Shares, representing approximately 3.7% of the public float in respect of the Subordinate Voting Shares and 10% of the public float in respect of each series of Preferred Shares. As at September 21, 2015, Fairfax had outstanding 22,034,939 Subordinate Voting Shares, 6,016,384 Series C Shares, 3,983,616 Series D Shares, 4,051,346 Series E Shares, 3,572,044 Series F Shares, 10,000,000 Series G Shares, 12,000,000 Series I Shares, 9,500,000 Series K Shares and 9,200,000 Series M Shares. Under the bid, Fairfax may purchase up to 6,966 Subordinate Voting Shares, 1,881 Series C Shares, 1,426 Series D Shares, 1,908 Series E Shares, 1,151 Series F Shares, 2,695 Series G Shares, 3,394 Series I Shares, 2,919 Series K Shares and 5,713 Series M Shares on the TSX (or other alternative Canadian trading systems) during any trading day, each of which represents 25% of the average daily trading volume on the TSX calculated in accordance with the rules of the TSX. This limitation does not apply to purchases made pursuant to block purchase exemptions.

From time to time, when Fairfax does not possess material nonpublic information about itself or its securities, it may, in accordance with the requirements of applicable securities laws and the TSX, enter into a pre-defined plan with its broker to allow for the purchase of its Subordinate Voting Shares or Preferred Shares, as the case may be, under the bid at times when it ordinarily would not be active in the market due to its own internal trading blackout periods.

Fairfax is making this Normal Course Issuer Bid because it believes that in appropriate circumstances its Subordinate Voting Shares and Preferred Shares represent an attractive investment opportunity and that, with respect to the Subordinate Voting Shares, purchases under the bid will enhance the value of the Subordinate Voting Shares held by the remaining shareholders.

Pursuant to its existing normal course issuer bid for its Subordinate Voting Shares, Fairfax has purchased 127,309 of its Subordinate Voting Shares and 376,610 of its Series E Shares during the last twelve months at weighted average prices per share of Cdn.$671.76 and Cdn.$16.89, respectively.

Fairfax is a holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and investment management.

It will be remembered that NCIBs, as a general rule, are public relations exercises by the announcing companies and are only rarely given effect. However, there was a real, if small, buy-back of BRF preferreds earlier this year and now it looks like there is another exception to the usual case.

FFH.PR.E was issued as a FixedReset FixedReset 4.75%+216, that commenced trading 2010-2-1 after being announced 2010-1-21. The dividend was reset to 2.91% effective 2015-3-31 and there was a 31% conversion to the FFH.PR.F FloatingReset, after which I reported:

there were 7,915,539 shares of FFH.PR.E outstanding relative to 3,572,044 shares of the FloatingReset FFH.PR.F.

This cannot be right since only eight million FFH.PR.E were originally issued! Oopsy.

TMXMoney now reports 4,074,543 shares of FFH.PR.E outstanding. compared to 3,572,044 of the FFH.PR.F; the total is 7,646,587, which although looking reasonable does not allow for the cancellation of the 376,610 shares of FFH.PR.E mentioned in the press release. So either there are some shares sitting in the FFH treasury that have not yet been cancelled, or there’s some kind of timing difference or (shock! horror!) the Toronto Stock Exchange has made a mistake, but I suppose these figures are close enough for government work.

The pricing behaviour for the prior year, combined with the average reported price of $16.89, suggests that the bulk of the buying was done in 2015:

FFHPRE_closePx
Click for Big

It is of interest to note that FFH.PR.E, resetting at +216bp over GOC-5, is the lowest-spread issue among the six FFH issues. The current comparison with other FFH FixedResets shows Implied Volatility is negligible:

impVol_FFH_150923
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The Implied Volatility of the FFH series has been quite low all year, implying that the lower-spread issues, as a group have been cheap relative to the higher-spread issues.