West Hamilton Holdings Ltd Rights Offering
West Hamilton Holdings Limited announced the results of its fully underwritten Rights Offering. The Offer commenced on July 4, 2011 and expired on July 22, 2011 without an extension.
The Offer gave Eligible Shareholders the right to subscribe for common shares in the Company on a one for one basis at a price of BD$6.50 per share to raise approximately BD$9.3 million (before expenses).
As a result of the Offer, 408,630 shares were taken up by Eligible Shareholders, which is approximately 28% of the total offered. The shares taken up by Eligible Shareholders include applications for unallocated shares.
According to Harrichand Sukdeo, CFO of West Hamilton Holdings Limited, “We are disappointed with the take up of the Offer but understand that certain Shareholders were reluctant to invest in the real estate sector at the current time when there is significant over capacity of available office space and a continued decline of job availability. However, as a result of the support of Bermuda Commercial Bank as underwriter, we are pleased to be able to move forward with our strategy to reduce the debt burden on the Company.”
Horst Finkbeiner, Director and COO of Bermuda Commercial Bank stated, “We are delighted to be able to support West Hamilton as financial adviser, issue sponsor and underwriter. We look forward to continuing to support the Company, and when economic conditions in Bermuda improve, we will work with the Company to develop what we know is a significant asset on Pitts Bay Road.”
Mr. Sukdeo – You are quite a learned individual and certainly you recognise as the market has that debt = debt = debt and that the replacement of long term debt with a rights offering is simply a reclassification of debt or obligations of the company – and ultimately a riskier investment given the lack of an obligation to repay. I serve as a Financial Advisor and who not advise your rights, to absolve existing debt with the bank presumably, with not a promise to repay this newest “debt”. I would also ask the question who would buy existing debt when there is no evidence of what the money was spent on. There isnt a building up at the site, just a car park, right?