Enstar plans offering; Cowen exercises greenshoe; RenaissanceRe improves; MetLife off

By James McCandless

San Antonio, June 18 – The preferred market saw an increase in activity as the new week kicked off.

Enstar Group Ltd. plans to price an offering of $25-par fixed-to-floating rate preference shares.

Cowen Inc. exercised its $10 million over-allotment option for its recent offering of 7.75% $25-par senior notes due 2033.

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.’s new $250 million series F preference shares improved amid a new rating.

MetLife, Inc.’s $805 million of 5.625% series E non-cumulative preferred shares declined.

Bank of America Corp.’s recent $1.2 billion issue of 6% series GG non-cumulative preferred stock slid.

Enstar plans offering

Enstar plans to price an offering of $25-par series D fixed-to-floating rate perpetual non-cumulative preference shares.

Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Barclays and HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. are the joint bookrunners.

The preference shares are callable after 10 years.

Cowen exercises greenshoe

Cowen said the underwriters for its recent offering of 7.75% $25-par senior notes due 2033 exercised their $10 million over-allotment option in full on June 13.

Cowen priced $90 million of the notes on June 6, as previously reported.

Morgan Stanley, UBS Securities LLC and Cowen & Co., LLC were the joint bookrunners (see related story elsewhere in this issue).

RenaissanceRe gains

RenaissanceRe’s new $250 million 5.75% series F preference shares led trading to start the week off with about 619,000 shares trading.

On Monday, Fitch Ratings assigned a BBB+ rating to the shares (see related story elsewhere in this issue).

The preferreds, which trade under the temporary ticker of “RNREF,” were up 1 cent to $25.00.

MetLife down

Metlife’s $805 million of 5.625% series E non-cumulative preferred shares traded down with about 453,000 shares exchanged.

The deal was priced May 30 at $700 million and was lifted to $805 million in a greenshoe exercise.

The preferreds (NYSE: METPrE) were down 9 cents to $25.34.

Bank of America slips

Bank of America’s recent $1.2 billion issue of 6% series GG non-cumulative preferred stock edged lower with about 284,000 shares trading.

The preferreds (NYSE: BACPrB) were down 1 cent to $25.75.

Indexes mixed

The Wells Fargo Hybrid & Preferred Securities Financial index closed up 0.09% at market close, adding to the 0.02% gain in early trading on Monday.

The iShares US Preferred Stock ETF was down 4 cents to close at $37.54.

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