Hybrids: Great West breaches Canada’s corporate frontier

Great-West Lifeco (GWL) has priced the first Canadian dollar-denominated, tax-deductible hybrid capital transaction.

The C$1 billion ($900 million) deal, which priced at a 35-basis point premium over the company’s senior debt, will be used to refinance the C$3.9 billion acquisition of Putnam, which took place in February. “Domestic issuance in Canada’s fixed-income market is scarce,” says Susan Rimmer, co-head of debt origination for Merrill Lynch in Canada, which led the deal alongside Bank of Montreal and Scotia Capital. “It is exciting for Canadian investors to see the first leg of the Putnam acquisition.”

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