Brookfield Office Properties (BPO-T)

Strongly advises investors to avoid rate-reset preferreds. Reason: traded horribly when rates went down, and horribly when rates went up. Relatively illiquid. Not fixed income, not equities. Nothing against BPO, just the preferred shares.

Preferred Shares. Use this as a GIC? This company has a huge presence in the preferred share market, with several different types of structures. He is a little hesitant on this. There is a newer one with a floor feature, an investment grade product. However, there are some out there that are still quite volatile, vulnerable to a change in an interest rate environment. He would recommend that you really know the specific issue that you have. You want to be really careful in your selection, and possibly get some professional help. He is underweight holdings with this company.

(A Top Pick Feb 11/15. Up 4.42%.) 4% bond maturing April 16, 2018. Brookfield is an undervalued investment. He likes the bonds very much.

4% bond maturing April 16, 2018. Thinks this is an undervalued bond, but is also an example of what kind of return you get in the short-term bond market. Yield is just over 2%. He likes the company, which has done very well. This bond is higher yielding than mostly anything in that term.

(A Top Pick Jan 29/14. Up 3.9%.) 5.29% bond maturing April 25/17. There were 2 reasons behind this pick. Brookfield is one of his favourite credits and seems to be undervalued in the bond market. It was a good cushion against a rising yield. (See Top Picks)

(A Top Pick Jan 29/14. Up 3.1%.) 5.29% bond maturing April 25/17. This was part of his “rolling down the yield curve” strategy, to take advantage of the steep yield curve. You buy 3, 4 and 5 year corporate bonds, and as they get shorter in term, they fall in yield and up in price, because they're getting closer to maturity and the spread narrows also, because there is less credit risk as the bond shortens.

W, X and Y series preferreds. He likes the floaters. An illiquid preferred share, however.

(A Top Pick June 14/13. Up 32.72%.) This no longer exists (Still listed, so don’t understand the comment.), but you can now own it in the form of Brookfield Property Partners (BPY-N) or (BPY.UN-T) (Not sure which one.), which he likes, and is trading at about $22, and is a $3-$4 discount to his NAV estimate. Gives you about a 4.5% yield. Thinks there is 20% upside in this name.

Floating rate Preferred shares. Yielding about 3.7%. Rated P3. If interest rates go up, the yield goes up. The one downside is the concentrated real estate, but their portfolio is so large and diversified, it is hard to think that they would be hurt. That is the only negative thing he can think of.

(A Top Pick Oct 18/12. Up 3.3%.) 4% bonds maturing 4/16/18. Still likes this. A fine credit and these bonds have performed well. These are all going to be low single digit returns and this is part of his “rolling down the yield curve” concept where you get your money back.

Preferred shares F series. A floating rate preferred. Yielding about 3.75%? There is an attractive after tax yield to anything that pays a dividend, whether it is a preferred or common share. Floating rate notes are not his preferred preference. It is very possible the primary could go down, given the recent softness in our economy. Would be happier if you were in the common shares.

5.29% bond maturing April 25/17. This is a high quality company.

(A Top Pick Jan 31/13. Up 14.92%.) Recently acquired by Brookfield Property Partners (BPY.UN-T) and there is an exchange offer that is pending. You are not going to get much more capital appreciation until the exchange actually happens which is what he is going to do. BPY is trading at about 15% discount to NAV.

Owns a little bit of this and is looking at it more seriously. The Brookfield group has done an excellent job. Have had some consolidation in terms of putting their property funds together. Very good managers. You get a bit of yield, but also have some positive prospects. This is a worldwide organization.