Weekend Odds and Ends

These are just a few items of interest (to some) of odds and ends I have come across this week or that folks have discussed in varying comments.

This morning 2whiteroses posted a notice of partial redemption on the Capital Southwest Corp (CSWC) 5.95% baby bonds. CSWC is a BDC. No harm is done to holders on this call as shares have been trading in the $25 PLUS accrued recently. The SEC filing is here.

CenturyLink (CTL) has announced a partial redemption of the Qwest 6.625% baby bonds (CTZ) issue on 9/15/2020. They will redeem 10 million shares. There are a total of 16 million shares outstanding. The press release is here.

Of course the big item of the week was the surprise call by Southern California Edison (a division of Edison Internation EIX) on old preferred shares that had been outstanding for decades. The big winners were those holding the SCE-D issue which had a bonus redemption price of $28.75 and was trading at $23.87 just prior to the fall announcement. From my reading we had numerous folks holding shares in these issues.

I see that folks are back talking Canadian Preferreds and Gridbird offers up this website for Canadian info. Looks like a good resource for those interested.

Don L posted a press release on the new Sachem Capital (SACH) baby bond–it priced at 7.75%–looks like the issue will be small-around 1/2 million shares. I have not posted the pricing as the SEC filling has not yet been made as of now. Will be a week or so before the new issue trades under ticker SCCC,

Lodging REIT Ashford Hospitality (AHT) has begun turning in the keys to hotels they owned as lenders begin to put their properties up for sale–when you can’t come to agreement with lenders they eventually take the properties–all of Ashfords properties are ‘non-recourse’ to the company so they turned over the keys to an 8 property portfolio this week. As I wrote before I think AHT is essentially broke and will liquidate in the year ahead with common and preferreds holders getting zip.

The Fed Balance sheet fell by $20 billion last week–obviously the buying of treasuries, mortgages and other assets by the Fed in the weeks and month ahead will be ‘lumpy’. There is so much money sloshing around the globe that the Fed hasn’t had to do much buying. There have been a number of huge treasury auctions in the last few weeks and the market has had no trouble buying everything available.