Canadian Banc Capital Securities Trust has filed a preliminary prospectus for an initial public offering of Class A and F units, Connor, Clark & Lunn Capital Markets Inc. said Friday.

Canadian Banc’s investment objectives are to provide unitholders with attractive tax-advantaged quarterly cash distributions, and return to unitholders at least the original issue price of the units upon termination of the fund on June 30, 2014.

Distributions are initially targeted to be $1.625 per year per unit consisting primarily of returns of capital, representing a yield on the unit issue price of 6.5% annually.

The fund will seek to achieve its investment objectives through exposure to an actively managed portfolio consisting primarily of Innovative Tier 1 Capital Securities of the six largest Canadian banks, including such issues as TD Capital Trust IV Notes (TD CaTS IV), Scotiabank Capital Trust Securities (Scotia BaTS II) and BMO Capital Trust II Notes (BoATS VI).

Connor, Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. will act as portfolio manager to the fund. CC&L believes that an attractive opportunity currently exists to invest in Innovative Tier 1 Capital Securities.

According to CC&L, the recent offerings of preferred and common shares by Canadian banks to strengthen their balance sheets has increased their regulatory capital levels to levels approaching historical highs, and has further enhanced the downside protection of Innovative Tier 1 Capital Securities.

It adds that Innovative Tier 1 Capital Securities currently provide high yields on an absolute basis and relative to government bonds and to equities.

As well, current spreads of Innovative Tier 1 Capital Securities over government bonds provide the opportunity for capital gains if spreads return to their long-term averages, CC&L says.

It also notes that Innovative Tier 1 Capital Securities represent a class of securities generally otherwise available only to institutional investors on issuance.

Securities in the Indicative Portfolio have a weighted average Investment Grade credit rating of A, a weighted average yield to the first date upon which the securities may be called at par of 8.32%, a current yield of 7.94% and an average term to call (to the first date upon which the securities may be called at par) of approximately 8.61 years.

The units are being offered for sale by a syndicate of agents led by BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc. and RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and includes Scotia Capital Inc., National Bank Financial Inc., TD Securities Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., Richardson Partners Financial Ltd., Dundee Securities Corp., Wellington West Capital Markets Inc., Blackmont Capital Inc., Canaccord Capital Corp., Desjardins Securities Inc., GMP Securities L.P., Manulife Securities Incorporated, Raymond James Ltd., and Research Capital Corp.

IE