The Globe and Mail

 

Blogs

Featured:

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 3:45 PM

TransCanada deal was a squeaker

Boyd Erman

Bay Street's abuzz with optimism after TransCanada Corp. successfully launched a $1-billion bought-deal share sale this week, the first big stock sale in months. In fact, it's the first big sale since the last time TransCanada came to market for more than $1-billion, back in May.

And while the optimism is warranted - it's nothing but good news that the market can handle a big deal like that, given the pummeling investors have taken since May - a comparison between the two deals reveals it was a much closer call to place all the stock this time.

Institutional investors bought less in the latest offering, with almost 40 per cent of the stock going into retail accounts, according to people familiar with the deal. And most investors got all the stock they asked for, while last time there was much more demand, so that investors only got about half what they requested.

This time, also, the discount to the prior trading price was much larger, though some of that relates to the fact that investors had sold TransCanada down before the May offering because the company announced the purchase of a power plant, a deal that telegraphed that the company would have to sell stock.

 

 

Latest Comments

Most recent posts from the Streetwise blog

Coventree's OSC expenses 7:24 PM EST

Power play offers life after the Street 4:44 PM EST

New Gold's ABCP is a hot commodity 3:52 PM EST

Brookfield Renewable taps bond market 1:47 PM EST

Most recent posts from the Streetwise blog

More business and investing posts

Market Blog

At the close: Coasting into the U.S. holiday 4:52 PM EST

Market Blog

BMO's numbers don't add up to happiness 3:45 PM EST

More business and investing posts

Streetwise Contributors

Andrew Willis

Andrew Willis joined The Globe and Mail in September of 1995. His career has included stints at a number of publications, including The Financial Post, The Financial Times of Canada, Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, and MacLean's magazine. He also did freelance writing for Investment Executive magazine. He appears on television for BNN TV and CBC Newsworld.

Andrew has co-written a book, The Bre-X Fraud, with business journalist Douglas Goold.

Read Streetwise Tuesday through Friday in the pages of Report on Business.

 
Boyd Erman

Boyd Erman

Boyd Erman is a long-time business journalist who has worked at Dow Jones, Bloomberg, and the National Post before joining the Globe and Mail. Over the years, his areas of coverage have included economics, monetary policy, debt markets and corporate finance.

In addition, he is a regular commentator and guest host on Business News Network.

 

Steve Ladurantaye

Steve Ladurantaye wrote about technology companies in Ottawa before reporting for the Peterborough Examiner and Kingston Whig-Standard, where he won a National Newspaper Award for explanatory journalism. After joining the Globe and Mail in 2007, his work has regularly appeared in Report On Business and Globe Investor Magazine.

 
Globe and Mail reporter Tara Perkins

Tara Perkins

Tara Perkins has been a business reporter since 2004, following a brief stint as overnight editor of globeandmail.com. She has been writing for the Globe's business section since the spring of 2007, covering the banking sector during the course of the financial crisis. Prior to that, she worked for the Toronto Star. Tara has a Bachelor of Journalism from Ryerson University and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Guelph.

 
Jacquie McNish

Jacquie McNish

Jacquie McNish has been a business writer with The Globe and Mail since 1988. Prior to that she was a reporter with The Wall Street Journal.

During her time at The Globe and Mail, she has served as the paper's New York correspondent and won three National Newspaper Awards. She is the author of The Big Score: Robert Friedland and The Voisey's Bay Hustle and Wrong Way: The Fall of Conrad Black, for which she and co-author Sinclair Stewart won the National Business Book Award. She is a co-host of Market Morning on the Business News Network.