No fuss over Gastar's new deal; Citigroup's recent issue gets reporting symbol; RBS gains

By Stephanie N. Rotondo

Phoenix, Oct. 28 - The preferred stock market was "real slow moving" on Monday, according to a trader.

"We were expecting to see a new deal," the trader said, noting that that had not yet come to pass. He added that he did see a new offering of series B cumulative preferreds from Gastar Exploration USA Ltd. but remarked that the sale "would not be making the front page."

Another market source said he saw a gray market trade of $24.75.

As to recently priced deals, Citigroup Inc.'s $1.3 billion issue of 6.875% series K fixed-to-floating rate noncumulative preferreds got a new reporting symbol, a trader said.

The new symbol is "CTRGL." He said he was not sure when the issue would officially list on the New York Stock Exchange, seeing paper trade early Monday at $24.90.

Another source said the issue ended the day flat at $24.92. He added that the preferreds were the most actively traded security, with over 2 million shares changing hands.

The deal priced Thursday.

Meanwhile, Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc's preferreds were inching back up after getting hammered last week. A decision about how the U.K. government intends to deal with the bank's bad assets is expected to come Friday along with third-quarter results.

RBS recoups losses

Chatter that the U.K. government planned to announce how it would deal with RBS' bad assets on Friday helped the preferreds recover ground lost in the previous week.

The 6.6% series S noncumulative dollar preference shares (NYSE: RBSPS) popped up by 65 cents, or 3.1%, to $21.65. The 6.4% series M noncumulative dollar preference shares (NYSE: RBSPM) increased by 81 cents, or nearly 4%, to $21.13.

According to news reports citing sources familiar with the matter, the government's decision will come along with the bank's third-quarter earnings. A market source said that it is believed that a "good bank-bad bank" split is not going to happen but instead that bad assets will be segregated and that the company will be more aggressive in ridding itself of "discontinuing businesses."

"So it's not much of a change [than what is already being done]," the source said. He noted that at least in the short term, there would be little impact on the preferreds.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.