Merchants Bancorp sells $25-par preferreds; Allstate positive; New Residential weakens

By James McCandless

San Antonio, Aug. 12 – The preferred market saw one new deal price on Monday and mixed trading in the broader secondary space.

In primary activity, Merchants Bancorp Inc. priced a $125 million offering of $25-par series B fixed-to-floating rate non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock with an initial dividend of 6%.

Leading the secondary, Allstate Corp.’s 5.1% series H fixed-rate non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock ended slightly positive.

REIT New Residential Investment Corp.’s new 7.125% series B fixed-to-floating rate cumulative redeemable preferred stock fell.

Sector peer Annaly Capital Management, Inc.’s 6.75% series I fixed-to-floating rate cumulative redeemable preferreds were relatively active but unchanged.

Meanwhile, in finance, Bank of America Corp.’s 5.875% series HH non-cumulative preferred stock declined.

Ally Financial, Inc.’s 8.125% series 2 fixed-to-floating rate trust preferred securities were also under pressure.

Merchants’ deal

In primary activity, Merchants Bancorp priced a $125 million offering of $25-par series B fixed-to-floating rate non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock (Egan-Jones: BBB+) at par with an initial dividend of 6%.

There is no greenshoe.

The deal was announced on Monday.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and UBS Securities LLC are the bookrunners.

The preferreds are redeemable on or after Oct. 1, 2024. Prior to that, they are redeemable within 90 days after a regulatory capital treatment event.

The dividend is fixed until Oct. 1, 2024, then converts to a floating rate of Libor plus 456.9 basis points.

Allstate up

Leading volume in the secondary market, Allstate’s 5.1% series H fixed-rate non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock ended the day slightly positive.

The preferreds (NYSE: ALLPrH) were up 1 cent to close at $25.39 on volume of about 1.1 million shares.

On Friday, the preferreds rose 8 cents.

New Residential falls

Elsewhere, real estate investment trust New Residential’s new 7.125% series B fixed-to-floating rate cumulative redeemable preferred stock was seen falling.

The preferreds, trading under the temporary symbol “NRZEP,” dropped 14 cents to close at $25.01 with about 1 million shares trading.

Sector peer Annaly Capital’s 6.75% series I fixed-to-floating rate cumulative redeemable preferreds were relatively active but remained unchanged.

The preferreds (NYSE: NLYPrI) closed the session level at $25.66 on volume of about 278,000 shares.

Bank of America down

Meanwhile, in the finance space, Bank of America’s 5.875% series HH non-cumulative preferred stock spent the day declining.

The preferreds (NYSE: BACPrK) fell 6 cents to close at $26.97 with about 235,000 shares trading.

Ally Financial’s 8.125% series 2 fixed-to-floating rate trust preferred securities were also under pressure on Monday.

The preferreds (NYSE: ALLYPrA) shed 16 cents to close at $26.44 on volume of about 216,000 shares.

Indexes mixed

The Wells Fargo Hybrid & Preferred Securities Financial index ended the first day of the week up by 0.10%, improving on the 0.01% decline in early Monday trading.

The iShares US Preferred Stock ETF was down 3 cents to $37.03.

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