TRP.PR.E To Reset At 3.762%

TC Energy Corporation has announced:

that it has notified the registered shareholder of the applicable dividend rates for Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series 9 (Series 9 Shares) and the Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series 10 (Series 10 Shares).

As previously announced in our news release dated September 18, 2019, holders of the Series 9 Shares have the right on October 30, 2019 to convert, on a one-for-one basis, any or all of their Series 9 Shares into Series 10 Shares and receive a floating rate quarterly dividend, or retain any or all of their Series 9 Shares and receive a new fixed rate quarterly dividend.

Should a holder of Series 9 Shares choose to retain their shares, such shareholders will receive the new annual fixed dividend rate applicable to the Series 9 Shares of 3.762% for the five-year period commencing October 30, 2019 to, but excluding, October 30, 2024.

Should a holder of Series 9 Shares choose to convert their shares to Series 10 Shares, holders of Series 10 Shares will receive the floating quarterly dividend rate applicable to the Series 10 Shares of 3.974% for the first quarterly floating rate period commencing effective October 30, 2019 to, but excluding, January 30, 2020. The floating quarterly dividend rate will be reset every quarter.

Beneficial owners of Series 9 Shares who do not provide notice or communicate with their broker or other nominee by 5 p.m. (EDT) on October 15, 2019 will retain their Series 9 Shares and receive the new annual fixed dividend rate applicable to the Series 9 Shares stated above.

The foregoing conversions are subject to the conditions that: (i) if TC Energy determines that there would be less than one million Series 9 Shares outstanding after October 30, 2019, then all remaining Series 9 Shares will automatically be converted into Series 10 Shares on a one-for-one basis on October 30, 2019 and (ii) alternatively, if TC Energy determines that there would be less than one million Series 10 Shares outstanding after October 30, 2019, no Series 9 Shares will be converted into Series 10 Shares. In either case, TC Energy will issue a news release to that effect no later than October 23, 2019.

For more information on the terms of, and risks associated with an investment in the Series 9 Shares and the Series 10 Shares, please see the Corporation’s prospectus supplement dated January 13, 2014 which is available on sedar.com or on our website.

TRP.PR.E is a FixedReset, 4.25%+235, that commenced trading 2014-1-20 after being announced 2014-1-13. Notice of extension was provided on 2019-9-18. It is tracked by HIMIPref™ and assigned to the FixedReset-Discount subindex.

The most logical way to analyze the question of whether or not to convert is through the theory of Preferred Pairs, for which a calculator is available. Briefly, a Strong Pair is defined as a pair of securities that can be interconverted in the future (e.g., TRP.PR.E and the FloatingReset that will exist if enough holders convert). Since they will be interconvertible on this future date, it may be assumed that they will be priced identically on this date (if they aren’t then holders will simply convert en masse to the higher-priced issue). And since they will be priced identically on a given date in the future, any current difference in price must be offset by expectations of an equal and opposite value of dividends to be received in the interim. And since the dividend rate on one element of the pair is both fixed and known, the implied average rate of the other, floating rate, instrument can be determined. Finally, we say, we may compare these average rates and take a view regarding the actual future course of that rate relative to the implied rate, which will provide us with guidance on which element of the pair is likely to outperform the other until the next interconversion date, at which time the process will be repeated.

We can show the break-even rates for each FixedReset / FloatingReset Strong Pair graphically by plotting the implied average 3-month bill rate against the next Exchange Date (which is the date to which the average will be calculated). Inspection of the graph and the overall average break-even rates for extant pairs will provide a guide for estimating the break-even rate for the pair now under consideration assuming, of course, that enough conversions occur so that the pair is in fact created.

pairs_fr_190930
Click for Big

The market has lost enthusiasm for floating rate product; the implied rates until the next interconversion are generally well below the current 3-month bill rate as the averages for investment-grade and junk issues are at +0.66% and +0.75%, respectively. Whatever might be the result of the next few Bank of Canada overnight rate decisions, I suggest that it is unlikely that the average rate over the next five years will be lower than current – but if you disagree, of course, you may interpret the data any way you like.

Since credit quality of each element of the pair is equal to the other element, it should not make any difference whether the pair examined is investment-grade or junk, although we might expect greater variation of implied rates between junk issues on grounds of lower liquidity, and this is just what we see.

If we plug in the current bid price of the TRP.PR.E FixedReset, we may construct the following table showing consistent prices for its soon-may-be-issued FloatingReset counterpart given a variety of Implied Breakeven yields consistent with issues currently trading:

Estimate of FloatingReset (received in exchange for TRP.PR.E) Trading Price In Current Conditions
  Assumed FloatingReset
Price if Implied Bill
is equal to
FixedReset Bid Price Spread 1.50% 1.00% 0.50%
TRP.PR.E 15.69 235bp 15.78 15.29 14.80

Based on current market conditions, I suggest that the FloatingResets that will result from conversion are likely to trade below the price of their FixedReset counterparts, TRP.PR.E. Therefore, it seems likely that I will recommend that holders of TRP.PR.E continue to hold the issue and not to convert, but I will wait until it’s closer to the October 15 notification deadline before making a final pronouncement. I will note that once the FloatingResets commence trading (if, in fact, they do) it may be a good trade to swap one issue for the other in the market once both elements of each pair are trading and you can – hopefully – do it with a reasonably good take-out in price, rather than doing it through the company on a 1:1 basis. But that, of course, will depend on the prices at that time and your forecast for the path of policy rates over the next five years. There are no guarantees – my recommendation is based on the assumption that current market conditions with respect to the pairs will continue until the FloatingResets commence trading and that the relative pricing of the two new pairs will reflect these conditions.

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