ABTE is still a dilemma for me. Management originally used floorless convertible debentures when then stock was around 20 - and Assensio and the holders shorted the stock down hard - pushing it down all the way to 2 or so. Fidelity and some other institutions then stepped in and pushed it up to 5 and management was convinced to get rid of the floorless debentures - acknowledging that they made a mistake using floorless debentures.
Worldcom (for whom they do work - and from whom they bought MFSNT) offered them temporary financing to take out the floorless debentures which is part of the reason the stock moved back up to where it is.
I find it hard to believe that Management is now going convert the Worldcom debt back into floorless debentures - but stranger things have happened. I suspect that new debentures have a fixed conversion price (say $8). Nelson Peltz and Triarc bought out Snapple at a low price and have done a good job turning it around. Peltz has a spotty record but hasn't typically been involved in the floorless game.
ABTE currently has over 2 mill shares short. And the last few days before the announcement has seen movement up in the stock and good volume on the calls. It will be interesting. The story will probably be in the New York Times in the morning.
David
P.S. here is some Nelson Peltz entertainment
Is a pattern developing here? Federal Judge Kenneth Ryskamp angrily threw out,
as a "fraud on the court," the harassment suit filed by housemaid Maria Vargas
against merger mogul Nelson Peltz. Vargas came up with her prize exhibit late in
the case, when she produced a pair of panties she said Peltz had asked her to
model in; her lawyer, G. Ware Cornell of West Palm Beach, waved the panties in
front of TV cameras and called them a "smoking gun." "When it's Œhe said, she
said,' " Cornell crowed, " Œshe said' wins. You can take that to the bank." But
Peltz's investigators managed to show that the panties, made in Hong Kong, had
not even been sold in the United States until nine months after the supposed
incident. It turned out the 100-percent-polyester-lined garments are sold only
through Target discount stores, three pairs for $7.77--not exactly prime shopping
turf for Peltz, whose wealth was estimated in a 1993 Forbes survey at $460
million. Vargas was identified in an affidavit as a regular shopper at a Target near
her house. |
