PrefBlog

Aimia Inc. has announced:

the applicable dividend rates for its Cumulative Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series 3 (the “Series 3 Shares”) and its Cumulative Floating Rate Preferred Shares, Series 4 (the “Series 4 Shares”), further to its February 22, 2024 notice and announcement that it will not exercise its right to redeem all or any part of the outstanding Series 3 Shares and, as a result of which, subject to certain conditions, the holders of the Series 3 Shares will have the right to convert all or any number of their Series 3 Shares into Series 4 Shares on a one-for-one basis.

With respect to any Series 3 Shares that remain outstanding on or after on April 1, 2024 (March 31, 2024 falling on a Sunday, a non-business day), holders of the Series 3 Shares will be entitled to receive fixed, cumulative, preferential cash dividends, payable quarterly, as and when declared by the Company’s Board of Directors. The annual dividend rate for the five-year period from and including March 31, 2024 to, but excluding, March 31, 2029 will be 7.773%, being equal to the five-year Government of Canada bond yield plus 4.20%, as determined in accordance with the rights, privileges, restrictions and conditions attaching to the Series 3 Shares.

With respect to any Series 4 Shares that may be issued on April 1, 2024, holders of the Series 4 Shares will be entitled to receive quarterly floating rate, cumulative, preferential cash dividends, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of Aimia. The dividend rate for the floating rate period from and including March 31, 2024 to, but excluding, June 30, 2024 will be 9.181%, being equal to the three-month Government of Canada Treasury Bill yield plus 4.20% per annum, calculated on the basis of the actual number of days in such quarterly period divided by 36, as determined in accordance with the rights, privileges, restrictions and conditions attaching to the Series 4 Shares (the “Floating Quarterly Dividend Rate”). The Floating Quarterly Dividend Rate will be reset every quarter.

The Series 3 Shares are issued in “book entry only” form and must be purchased or transferred through a participant (a “CDS Participant”) in the depository service of CDS Clearing and Depository Services Inc. (“CDS”). All rights of holders of Series 3 Shares must be exercised through CDS or the CDS Participant through which the Series 3 Shares are held. As such, beneficial owners of Series 3 Shares who wish to exercise their conversion right should communicate as soon as possible with their broker or other nominee to obtain instructions for exercising such right through CDS on or prior to the deadline for exercise, which is 5:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on March 18, 2024. All notices received after this deadline will not be valid.

Holders of Series 3 Shares as of the applicable record date remain eligible to receive dividends on their Series 3 Shares, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of Aimia, for the period from and including December 31, 2023 to, but excluding, March 31, 2024 at the current annual dividend rate of 6.01%.

All inquiries regarding the conversion of Aimia’s Series 3 Shares should be directed to the Company’s Transfer Agent, TSX Trust Company at 1-800-387-0825 or shareholderinquiries@tmx.com.

AIM.PR.C was issued as a FixedReset, 6.25%+420, that commenced trading 2014-1-15 after being announced 2014-1-6. The extension was announced 2019-2-26. AIM.PR.C reset at 6.011% effective 2019-3-31 (not 6.01%, as stated in the original press release) I recommended against conversion and there was no conversion. Notice of extension was provided in 2024. The issue is tracked by HIMIPref™ but relegated to the Scraps-FixedReset (Discount) subindex on credit concerns.

Thanks to Assiduous Reader niagara for bringing this to my attention!

Pembina Pipeline Corporation has announced:

that it does not intend to exercise its right to redeem the currently outstanding Cumulative Redeemable Rate Reset Class A Preferred Shares, Series 17 (“Series 17 Shares”) (TSX: PPL.PR.Q) on March 31, 2024.

As a result of the decision not to redeem the Series 17 Shares, and subject to certain terms of the Series 17 Shares, the holders of the Series 17 Shares will have the right to elect to convert all or part of their Series 17 Shares on a one-for-one basis into Cumulative Redeemable Floating Rate Class A Preferred Shares, Series 18 of Pembina (“Series 18 Shares”) on March 31, 2024 (the “Conversion Date”). Holders who do not exercise their right to convert their Series 17 Shares into Series 18 Shares will retain their Series 17 Shares.

As provided in the terms of the Series 17 Shares: (i) if Pembina determines that there would remain outstanding immediately following the conversion less than 1,000,000 Series 17 Shares, then all remaining Series 17 Shares will be automatically converted into Series 18 Shares on a one-for-one basis effective as of the Conversion Date; or (ii) if Pembina determines that there would be less than 1,000,000 Series 18 Shares outstanding immediately following the conversion, no Series 17 Shares will be converted into Series 18 Shares on the Conversion Date. There are currently 6,000,000 Series 17 Shares outstanding.

With respect to any Series 17 Shares that remain outstanding after the Conversion Date, holders thereof will be entitled to receive quarterly fixed cumulative preferential cash dividends, if, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of Pembina. The annual dividend rate for the Series 17 Shares for the five-year period from and including March 31, 2024, to, but excluding, March 31, 2029, will be 6.605 percent, being equal to the five-year Government of Canada bond yield of 3.595 percent determined as of today plus 3.01 percent, in accordance with the terms of the Series 17 Shares.

With respect to any Series 18 Shares that may be issued on the Conversion Date, holders thereof will be entitled to receive quarterly floating rate cumulative preferential cash dividends, if, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of Pembina. The annual dividend rate applicable to the Series 18 Shares for the three-month floating rate period from and including March 31, 2024, to, but excluding, June 30, 2024, will be 7.991 percent, being equal to the annual rate of interest for the most recent auction of 90-day Government of Canada treasury bills of 4.981 percent plus 3.01 percent, in accordance with the terms of the Series 18 Shares (the “Floating Quarterly Dividend Rate”). The Floating Quarterly Dividend Rate will be reset on the last day of March, June, September and December in each year.

Beneficial holders of Series 17 Shares who wish to exercise their right of conversion during the conversion period, which runs from March 1, 2024, until 3:00 pm (MT) / 5:00 pm (ET) on March 18, 2024, should communicate as soon as possible with their broker or other intermediary for more information. It is recommended that this be done well in advance of the deadline in order to provide the broker or other intermediary with the time to complete the necessary steps. Any notices received after this deadline will not be valid.

As previously announced, the dividend payable on March 31, 2024, to holders of the Series 17 Shares of record on March 15, 2024, will be $0.301313 per Series 17 Share. Pursuant to the terms of the Series 17 Shares, as March 31, 2024 is not a business day, payment will occur on April 1, 2024. For more information on the terms of the Series 17 Shares and the Series 18 Shares, please see the articles of amalgamation dated October 2, 2017, which can be found on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

It will be recalled that PPL.PR.Q will reset at 4.821% effective March 31, 2019.

PPL.PR.Q was originally issued as VSN.PR.C, following a plan of arrangement between the two companies. VSN.PR.C was a FixedReset, 5.00%+301 that commenced trading 2013-10-21 after being announced 2013-10-9. PPL.PR.Q reset at 4.821% effective 2019-3-31. I recommended against conversion and there was no conversion. PPL.PR.Q is tracked by HIMIPref™ but is relegated to the Scraps-FixedReset (Discount) subindex on credit concerns.

Thanks to Assiduous Reader niagara for bringing this to my attention!

Aimia Inc. has announced (on 2024-2-22):

that it does not intend to exercise its right to redeem its currently outstanding Cumulative Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series 3 (“Series 3 Shares”) (TSX: AIM.PF.C) on March 31, 2024. As a result, subject to certain conditions, the holders of the Series 3 Shares have the right to convert all or part of their Series 3 Shares on a one-for-one basis into Cumulative Floating Rate Preferred Shares, Series 4 of Aimia (“Series 4 Shares”) on April 1, 2024 (March 31, 2024 falling on a Sunday, a non-business day). Holders who do not exercise their right to convert their Series 3 Shares into Series 4 Shares will retain their Series 3 Shares.

The foregoing conversion right is subject to the conditions that: (i) if Aimia determines that there would be fewer than 1,000,000 Series 3 Shares outstanding after April 1, 2024, then all remaining Series 3 Shares will automatically be converted into Series 4 Shares on a one-for-one basis on April 1, 2024; and alternatively (ii) if Aimia determines that there would be less than 1,000,000 Series 4 Shares after April 1, 2024 no Series 3 Shares will be converted into Series 4 Shares. There are currently 4,355,263 Preferred Series 3 Shares outstanding.

The annual fixed dividend rate applicable to the Series 3 Preferred Shares for the 5-year period from and including March 31, 2024 to but excluding March 31, 2029, and the floating quarterly dividend rate applicable to the Series 4 Preferred Shares for the 3-month period from and including March 31, 2024 to but excluding June 30, 2024 will be announced by a news release on March 1, 2024.

Beneficial holders of Series 3 Shares who wish to exercise their right of conversion during the conversion period, which runs from March 1, 2024 to March 18, 2024 at 5:00 pm (Eastern Time), should communicate with their broker or other intermediary for more information as soon as possible. It is recommended that holders do this well in advance of the deadline date to provide their broker or intermediary sufficient time to complete necessary steps. All notices received after the deadline date will not be valid.

All inquiries regarding the conversion of Aimia’s Series 3 Preferred Shares should be directed to the Company’s Transfer Agent, TSX Trust Company at 1-800-387-0825 or shareholderinquiries@tmx.com.

AIM.PR.C was issued as a FixedReset, 6.25%+420, that commenced trading 2014-1-15 after being announced 2014-1-6. The extension was announced 2019-2-26. AIM.PR.C reset at 6.011% effective 2019-3-31 (not 6.01%, as stated in the original press release) I recommended against conversion and there was no conversion. The issue is tracked by HIMIPref™ but relegated to the Scraps-FixedReset (Discount) subindex on credit concerns.

Brompton Group has announced (on 2024-2-28):

that the distribution rate for the preferred shares (the “Preferred Shares”) for the 5-year term from April 30, 2024 to April 27, 2029 will be $0.70 per Preferred Share per annum (7.0% on the par value of $10.00) payable quarterly. This represents a pre-tax interest equivalent yield of approximately 9.1%.(1) The Preferred Share distribution rate is based on current market rates for preferred shares with similar terms.

The term extension offers preferred shareholders the opportunity to enjoy preferential cash dividends until April 27, 2029. Over the past 10-year period to January 31, 2024, the Preferred Share has delivered a 6.1% per annum return.(2) The Preferred Share has delivered consistent returns with less volatility and has outperformed the S&P/TSX Preferred Share Index over the past 10-year period by 4.2% per annum.(2)

Annual Compound Returns(2)	1-Year	3-Year	5-Year	10-Year
Preferred Shares (TSX: LCS.PR.A)	6.4%	6.4%	6.4%	6.1%
S&P/TSX Preferred Share Index	4.5%	2.2%	3.9%	1.9%

In addition, the Fund intends to maintain the targeted monthly class A share (the “Class A Share”) distribution rate at $0.075 per Class A Share.(3) The Class A Share has outperformed both the S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index and the S&P/TSX Composite Index over the past 1, 3, 5, and 10-year periods. (2) Over the past 10-year period to January 31, 2024, the Class A Share has delivered an 11.6% per annum return, outperforming the S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index and the S&P/TSX Composite Index (the “TSX Composite”) by 2.0% per annum and 4.0% per annum, respectively. (2)

Annual Compound Returns(2)	1-Year	3-Year	5-Year	10-Year
Class A Shares (TSX: LCS)	39.8%	32.4%	25.5%	11.6%
S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index	4.6%	12.1%	9.8%	9.6%
S&P/TSX Composite Index	4.7%	10.0%	9.6%	7.6%

Since inception on April 18, 2007 to January 31, 2024, Class A shareholders have received cash distributions of $8.36 per Class A Share. Class A shareholders have the option to benefit by reinvesting their cash distributions in a distribution reinvestment plan (“DRIP”) which is commission free to participants. Class A shareholders can enroll in the DRIP program by contacting their investment advisor.

The Fund invests in a portfolio of common shares of Canada’s four largest publicly-listed life insurance companies, on an approximately equal weight basis: Great-West Lifeco Inc., iA Financial Group, Manulife Financial Corporation and Sun Life Financial Inc.

In connection with the extension, shareholders who do not wish to continue their investment in the Fund, will be able to retract their Preferred Shares or Class A Shares on April 29, 2024 pursuant to a special retraction right and receive a retraction price that is calculated in the same way that such price would be calculated if the Fund were to terminate on April 29, 2024. Pursuant to this option, the retraction price may be less than the market price if the security is trading at a premium to net asset value. To exercise this retraction right, shareholders must provide notice to their investment dealer by March 28, 2024 at 5:00 p.m.(Toronto time). Alternatively, shareholders may sell their Preferred Shares and/or Class A Shares through their securities dealer for the market price at any time, potentially at a higher price than would be achieved through retraction, or shareholders may take no action and continue to hold their shares.

Thanks to Assiduous Reader niagara for bringing this to my attention!