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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 6:20 AM

TD Ameritrade raises $1.25-billion

Andrew Willis

We try not to be cynical, or simple-minded, in this space, so we’ll give TD Ameritrade the benefit of the doubt on its recent $1.25-billion (U.S.) bond financing.

It is surely a coincidence that the discount brokerage is out raising a truck load of debt just a few days after its CEO confessed that yes, he would consider buying troubled rival E*Trade Financial if the terms were right.

Don’t forget, just a few words on the possibility of an acquisition from TD Ameritrade brass lit a fire under E*Trade’s stock price. But there’s nothing to see here, just move along.

TD Ameritrade, which features Toronto-Dominion Bank TD-T as a minority shareholder, sold bonds on Friday in both the U.S. and Canadian markets.

The company raised $250-million selling three-year notes, $500-million with a five-year issue, and $500-million of 10-year debt. That is a whole lot of locked-in capital.

The underwriting was led by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and TD Securities.

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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.

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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.

 
May 28/ 2009 - Jeff Gray is photographed for logo in Toronto, Ont. May 28/2009. Photo by Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail
May 28/2009

Jeff Gray

Jeff Gray joined The Globe in 1998. After stints as a reporter in sports and as a copy editor in news, he helped relaunch globeandmail.com as a breaking news website in 2000. He moved to The Globe's Toronto city hall bureau in 2004, writing a weekly column about traffic and public transit. He has also worked for the world desk of the BBC's news website in London and for CBC News. He covers legal affairs for The Report on Business.

 
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.