Category: Market Action

There’s an overnight treasury offering for PIC.PR.A:

Premium Income Corporation (the “Fund”) is pleased to announce that it is undertaking an overnight treasury offering of Preferred Shares (the “Offering”).

The sales period for the overnight offering will end tomorrow, January 22, 2026. The offering is expected to close on or about January 29, 2026, and is subject to certain closing conditions including approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”). The Preferred Shares will be offered at a price of $16.20 per Preferred Share. The trading price on the TSX for the Preferred Shares as at the last trade on January 21, 2026 was $16.46. Since the inception of the Fund, the aggregate dividends declared on the Preferred Shares have been $25.96 per share.

The Fund invests in a portfolio consisting principally of common shares of Bank of Montreal, The Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada and The Toronto-Dominion Bank. To generate additional returns above the dividend income earned on the Fund’s portfolio, the Fund will selectively write covered call and put options in respect of some or all of the common shares in the Fund’s portfolio. The manager and investment manager of the Fund is Mulvihill Capital Management Inc.

The Preferred Shares pay fixed cumulative preferential monthly cash distributions in the amount of $0.10625 ($1.275 per annum) per Preferred Share representing a yield of 8.50% on the original issue price of $15.00.

The syndicate of agents for the offering is being led by National Bank Financial Inc.

For further information, please contact Investor Relations at 416.681.3966, toll free at 1.800.725.7172, email at info@mulvihill.com or visit www.mulvihill.com

On 2026-01-06, the Capital Units were split 110-new-for-100-old:

Premium Income Corporation (the “Fund”) is pleased to announce its intention to complete a share split of its class A shares (the “Share Split”) due to the Fund’s strong performance. Class A shareholders of record at the close of business on January 13, 2026 will receive 10 additional class A shares for every 100 class A shares held, pursuant to the Share Split. The Share Split is subject to the approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange (the “TSX”).

The Fund has also declared an increase to the monthly distributions payable to class A shareholders of $0.09 per share from $0.08 per share. As a result of the Share Split and monthly distribution increase, the total dollar amount of distributions to be paid to class A shareholders is expected to increase by approximately 22%. Since inception, class A shareholders have received cash distributions of $41.61 per share. The class A shares are expected to commence trading on an ex-split basis at the opening of trading on January 13, 2026. No fractional Class A shares will be issued, and the number of class A shares each holder shall receive will be rounded down to the nearest whole number. The Share Split is a non-taxable event.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.60%, equivalent to 7.28% interest at the standard conversion factor of 1.3x. Long corporates yielded 4.92% on 2026-1-21. Therefore the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (in this context, the “Seniority Spread”) has widened slightly (and perhaps spuriously) to 235bp from the 230bp reported January 14.

Canadian inflation was up a bit in December:

Statistics Canada says the end of the federal government’s tax holiday a year earlier pushed the annual pace of inflation up two ticks to 2.4 per cent in December.

A poll of economists heading into Monday’s data release had expected the annual inflation rate would hold steady at 2.2 per cent.

Statscan said Ottawa’s move to take GST off some items for two months starting mid-December in 2024 dropped prices for dining out, alcohol, children’s toys and more a year earlier, but those discounts fell out of the annual comparison and pushed the Consumer Price Index higher to end the year.

That led to an 8.5-per-cent annual increase in the price of restaurant meals, which Statscan said fuelled the acceleration in the headline number. Some grocery items including potato chips and confectionery goods were also included in the tax holiday and saw annual price jumps in December, the agency said.

Overall, the cost of food bought from the grocery store rose 5 per cent annually, though Statscan said price levels were broadly unchanged month-to-month. Grocery store inflation has been accelerating in recent months, rising 4.7 per cent year-over-year in November.
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Andrew Grantham, senior economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said while the distortion from the “tax holiday” was expected, what caught forecasters off-guard was the jump in transportation costs last month.

While the cost of air transportation was marginally lower year-over-year, Statscan said airfare prices surged 34.5 per cent month-over-month – outpacing the previous year’s holiday price hike. The cost of travel tours also rose on a monthly basis, which Statscan attributed to higher prices for U.S. destinations.

Quadravest has announced:

Dividend 15 Split Corp. (the “Company”) is pleased to announce it will undertake an offering of Preferred Shares (TSX: DFN.PR.A) of the Company. The offering will be led by National Bank Financial Inc.

The sales period of this overnight offering will end at 8:30 a.m. EST on January 16, 2026. The offering is expected to close on or about January 23, 2026 and is subject to certain closing conditions including approval by the TSX.

The Preferred Shares will be offered at a price of $10.45 per Preferred Share

The closing price on the TSX of the Preferred Shares on January 14, 2026 was $10.52.

Since inception of the Company, the aggregate dividends paid on the Preferred Shares have been $11.75 per share. All distributions paid to date have been made in tax advantaged eligible Canadian dividends.
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PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.57%, equivalent to 7.24% interest at the standard conversion factor of 1.3x. Long corporates yielded 4.92% on 2026-1-7. Therefore the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (in this context, the “Seniority Spread”) has remained steady at the 230bp reported January 7.

Central bankers have united behind Powell in his defence of central bank independence:

We stand in full solidarity with the Federal Reserve System and its Chair Jerome H. Powell. The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve. It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability. Chair Powell has served with integrity, focused on his mandate and an unwavering commitment to the public interest. To us, he is a respected colleague who is held in the highest regard by all who have worked with him.

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank on behalf of the ECB Governing Council

Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England

Erik Thedéen, Governor of Sveriges Riksbank

Christian Kettel Thomsen, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Danmarks Nationalbank

Martin Schlegel, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank

Ida Wolden Bache, Governor of Norges Bank

Michele Bullock, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia

Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada

Chang Yong Rhee, Governor of the Bank of Korea

Gabriel Galípolo, Governor of the Banco Central do Brasil

François Villeroy de Galhau, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements

Pablo Hernández de Cos, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements

Note: Other central banks may be added to the list of signatories later on.

CI Financial is buying Invesco Canada:

CI Financial Corp.’s N/A
asset management arm is taking over Invesco Ltd.’s Canadian fund business, acquiring control of about 100 mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

CI Global Asset Management is buying the management agreements for Invesco’s Canadian funds, which oversee a combined $26-billion of assets, expanding the lineup of products it can offer to clients.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The two companies are also entering a long-term pact to have Invesco’s affiliates help manage 63 funds with $13-billion under management, providing portfolio management services.
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CI Financial was itself acquired by Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Capital in a $4.7-billion privatization deal late in 2024, following an audacious U.S. expansion led by chief executive officer Kurt MacAlpine through which the asset manager took on billions of dollars of debt.

The privatization of CI came at a time when the company was under pressure from shareholders to take its U.S. arm public and show it had a plan to manage its heavy debt load.

This latest deal with Invesco “highlights how operating as a private company allows us to unlock new opportunities to create meaningful long-term value for CI and our clients,” Mr. MacAlpine said in a news release.

Invesco used to have a Canadian preferred share ETF, used as a comparator for my MAPF, but they closed it. The last performance comparison was for March, 2023.