Trader Corporations debt deal closed:
Trader Corp. late yesterday completed an offering of secured notes via sole bookrunner RBC Capital Markets, sources said. Terms were inked at the middle of talk, with a $15 million upsizing, to $290 million, after a 103 prepay option was removed from the deal, sources note. Beyond that, terms include a first call at par plus 75% of the coupon to balance the shorter-than-typical call protection on a seven-year tenor. Issuance comes under Rule 144A for life. Proceeds support the buyout of the classified-ads-magazine publisher by Apax Partners from Montreal-based Yellow Media. The assets being acquired comprise AutoTrader.ca and a roughly 30% interest in Dealer Dot Com. Yellow Media’s real-estate, employment and LesPAC.com businesses are excluded from the proposed asset sale.
Settlement is July 28, so we should soon see definitive timing of the YLO deal.
Speaking of junk, Fitch has declared default on Greece:
Fitch ratings agency declared Greece would be in temporary default as the result of a second bailout, which Athens said had bought it breathing space.
But the agency pledged to give Greece a higher, “low speculative grade” rating after its bonds had been exchanged and said Athens now had some hope of tackling its debt mountain, which most economists still expect to force a deeper restructuring in the future.
…
Ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s are likely to follow Fitch’s lead since banks and insurers are expected to write down the value of Greek bonds by around 20 percent, with more losses maybe to follow.“We have long thought that the most likely outcome for Greek bondholders would be that they would take a small haircut first followed by a larger one at a later date. To give Greece a fighting chance they probably need a write down close to 65 per cent,” said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution.
The default will cost a big pile of money:
Europe’s biggest banks stand to lose 20.6 billion euros ($29.7 billion) on their Greek government bonds after lenders in the region pledged to contribute to a new rescue package for Greece.
Banks will voluntarily agree to write down the value of their Greek securities by 21 percent as part of the bond exchange and debt buyback program, the Institute of International Finance said in a statement today. Europe’s 90 biggest banks hold about 98 billion euros of Greek debt, according to the European Banking Authority.
Which just goes to show: private enterprise can sometimes screw up big-time, but nobody, nobody, can screw up like government.
The Financial Post has a bit today on the TMX / Maple talks:
“If TMX and Maple got together, if they were to agree on something, whatever they agree on would probably have a better chance of passing competition reviews in Canada,” said Ed Ditmire, an analyst with Macquarie Capital in New York.
The Competition Bureau is reviewing Maple’s offer, which includes plans to integrate the Toronto Stock Exchange with the Alpha Group alternative trading system (ATS), the TSX’s largest domestic competitor.
The move would result in the combined entity controlling more than 80% of Canadian stock trading and has raised concerns it would give TMX-Alpha too much power over listing prices.
Earlier this week, the bureau requested more information to complete its review of the proposed deal.
“It is inconceivable it should be an issue for the competition bureau, given other (ATS) players such as Chi-X and PureTrading could fill any void,” said independent analyst Chris Damas.
I don’t quite understand that. How often are the banks going to have a void when they make a decisions as to where to place a limit order? I looked at the website for Chris Damas’ firm, BCMI Research, but was unable to find any performance data, so I skipped down to later in the FP article:
“It’s not as simple an issue as people let out to be,” said Thomas Caldwell, chairman of Caldwell Securities, who conceded that Maple’s competition hurdles were not insurmountable.
“It’s about some major institutions basically trying to gain control of the pricing mechanisms. So from that perspective, let’s call a spade a shovel here. It’s actually a remutualization (of the TMX) with a little bit of window dressing.”
Caldwell, who has not been shy about his opposition to the Maple offer and the nationalist rhetoric surrounding the deal, said he was “open” to Maple should the two sides find a middle ground that addressed concerns over access, pricing, and a promise by Maple’s key members to eventually reduce their ownership over time.
OK, that part I understand, except for the part about how the competition hurdles are surmountable.
Interesting bit on fiduciary responsibilities of doctors:
When you go to a walk-in clinic, instead of a hospital emergency department, your doctor gets financially dinged for it.
If that clinic billed Ontario for an intermediate assessment done on your son, for example, your doctor would lose $33.10 from his so-called access bonus because he’s in a family health network; or in a family health organization or on a blended salary model. That, however, does not give him the right to threaten to fire you from his medical practice and it is highly inappropriate for him to suggest as much.
I called Ontario’s Health Minister Deb Matthews about your question and she’s heard other stories of doctors suggesting to patients they go to an emergency instead of a walk-in clinic, though not necessarily threatening to fire them.
“That is disappointing,” Ms. Matthews says in a telephone interview, “the doctor would put their compensation ahead of the best possible care for their patient.”
Not disappointing. Expected. This is a dumb dinging system: it is the patient who should have been dinged for the $33.10. Why is it that bureaucrats always assume that everybody in the world is a Good Scout?
I recently had occasion to send some registered mail; today, when I checked to see whether it had been delivered, I was startled to see a note on the Canada Post tracking website that I should call customer service. ‘Uh-oh’, I thought, or words to that effect, ‘this can’t be good’. So I call and it turns out everything was fine – the delivery has been made, albeit one day later than I thought would be the case. So why did I have to call customer service? It seems that tracking numbers can be duplicated and when they are the computerization doesn’t work properly.
Leave it to Canada Post to carefully build a system involving eleven digit tracking numbers, and then duplicate them! Good old Canada Post, always good for a laugh!
It was a good day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts up 6bp, FixedResets gaining 7bp and DeemedRetractibles winning 15bp. Not much volatility. Volume was low.
| 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 | 0.0472 % | 2,448.2 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0472 % | 3,682.1 |
| Floater | 2.48 % | 2.27 % | 39,449 | 21.64 | 4 | 0.0472 % | 2,643.4 |
| OpRet | 4.85 % | 1.81 % | 59,760 | 0.19 | 9 | 0.1240 % | 2,453.7 |
| SplitShare | 5.23 % | 1.42 % | 52,202 | 0.60 | 6 | 0.0785 % | 2,514.6 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1240 % | 2,243.6 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.67 % | 4.88 % | 135,035 | 0.59 | 13 | 0.1950 % | 2,095.5 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.43 % | 5.43 % | 108,639 | 14.75 | 17 | 0.0645 % | 2,207.6 |
| FixedReset | 5.15 % | 3.12 % | 200,581 | 2.65 | 58 | 0.0740 % | 2,327.1 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.07 % | 4.68 % | 267,852 | 7.88 | 47 | 0.1522 % | 2,171.2 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| RY.PR.W | Perpetual-Discount | -1.28 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-07-22 Maturity Price : 24.29 Evaluated at bid price : 24.61 Bid-YTW : 4.96 % |
| IAG.PR.A | Deemed-Retractible | -1.14 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 22.48 Bid-YTW : 5.97 % |
| PWF.PR.O | Perpetual-Premium | 1.34 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2018-10-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.65 Bid-YTW : 5.38 % |
| PWF.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | 1.47 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-07-22 Maturity Price : 23.92 Evaluated at bid price : 24.16 Bid-YTW : 5.45 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| BMO.PR.J | Deemed-Retractible | 66,355 | RBC crossed 27,900 at 25.00. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.01 Bid-YTW : 4.61 % |
| CM.PR.H | Deemed-Retractible | 57,122 | Called for redemption. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-04-30 Maturity Price : 25.50 Evaluated at bid price : 25.73 Bid-YTW : 3.34 % |
| BNS.PR.L | Deemed-Retractible | 46,040 | RBC crossed blocks of 25,000 and 17,300, both at 24.95. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.95 Bid-YTW : 4.54 % |
| GWO.PR.I | Deemed-Retractible | 37,660 | Desjardins crossed 30,000 at 22.47. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 22.52 Bid-YTW : 5.84 % |
| IFC.PR.A | FixedReset | 35,075 | Recent new issue. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.01 Bid-YTW : 4.05 % |
| BNS.PR.O | Deemed-Retractible | 32,280 | TD crossed 20,000 at 26.25. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2016-04-27 Maturity Price : 25.25 Evaluated at bid price : 26.30 Bid-YTW : 4.57 % |
| There were 26 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| RY.PR.X | FixedReset | Quote: 27.11 – 27.45 Spot Rate : 0.3400 Average : 0.2219 YTW SCENARIO |
| IAG.PR.A | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 22.48 – 22.78 Spot Rate : 0.3000 Average : 0.1874 YTW SCENARIO |
| TRP.PR.B | FixedReset | Quote: 25.55 – 25.85 Spot Rate : 0.3000 Average : 0.1918 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PR.P | FixedReset | Quote: 27.10 – 27.36 Spot Rate : 0.2600 Average : 0.1532 YTW SCENARIO |
| RY.PR.E | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 24.28 – 24.60 Spot Rate : 0.3200 Average : 0.2411 YTW SCENARIO |
| GWO.PR.H | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 23.42 – 23.75 Spot Rate : 0.3300 Average : 0.2537 YTW SCENARIO |
[…] been checking every day since the Trader Corp. debt issue closed on July 22! As noted on July 27, their 11Q2 financials will be released on August […]