BSD.PR.A May Get New Mandate, New Manager, New Name

Brookfield Investment Management (Canada) Inc. has announced:

a proposal to make amendments to the declaration of trust of its fund Brascan SoundVest Rising Distribution Split Trust (TSX:BSD.UN) (the “Fund”), as well as to change the Fund’s manager, and to rename the Fund “Brookfield Soundvest Split Trust”.

The proposal, which requires approval by the capital unitholders of the Fund, would result in a change to the existing investment strategy. It is proposed that the Fund’s investment mandate be expanded to allow investment in a broader set of primarily high yielding equity securities. The investment objectives will remain the same: for holders of preferred securities, to provide fixed quarterly interest payments and repay the original subscription price at maturity; and for holders of capital units, to provide a regular stream of monthly distributions and to maximize long-term total return.

The Manager believes that expanding the investment flexibility of the Fund will permit it to invest in a broader range of securities to off-set the reduction in the number of income trust investments resulting from the Canadian Federal Government’s decision announced on October 31, 2006 to change the way that income trusts are to be taxed, effective January 1, 2011.

Costs of making these changes including the preparation of materials for and the holding of unitholder meetings will be borne by the Manager. If the extraordinary resolutions are approved, then the Fund will bear any costs associated with repositioning its investment portfolio to reflect the amended investment strategies and restrictions.

The Manager has called a meeting of Fund capital unitholders for 10:00 a.m. on April 20, 2010 to consider the extraordinary resolutions being proposed. It is expected that materials for this meeting, which will provide further details on the proposals, will be available no later than three weeks prior to the date of the meeting and will be delivered to investors who hold capital units in the Fund as of the official record date, which is March 12, 2010.

Subject to capital unitholder and regulatory approval, review by the Funds’ independent review committee, and other closing conditions, the changes are expected to be completed by April 30, 2010.

This trust has been most notable for its appalling performance since inception, although the abusive suspension of retraction rights and lackadaisical Normal Course Issuer Bid run a close second and third.

BSD.PR.A was last mentioned on PrefBlog when the semi-annual financials were published. BSD.PR.A is tracked by HIMIPref™ but is relegated to the Scraps index on credit concerns.

One Response to “BSD.PR.A May Get New Mandate, New Manager, New Name”

  1. […] Brascan Soundvest Rising Distribution Split Trust has released via SEDAR the materials for the Extraordinary Meeting of Capital Unitholders previously reported on PrefBlog. […]

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