MRNTV off to a good start (23.90 as of the time of this post).
Thanks to Judge Lynn for bringing a measure of justice to the process. And may Marce, Dahlberg et al eventually suffer from their malfeasance, gross incompetence and apparant criminal conduct.
finance.messages.yahoo.com
New Mirant shares initially well-received
Investors who hung in poised to reap rewards
By MARGARET NEWKIRK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/05/06
Advance trading in shares of Atlanta's Mirant Corp. is producing prices that could bode well for both the born-again company and the long-suffering investors of the old one.
The trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market has been on a "when-issued" basis for the past month and represents estimates of how the market will receive the energy company when it relists next week. Mirant emerged from Chapter 11 Tuesday.
Advance prices for Mirant's stock closed just under $23 per share Wednesday.
The old Mirant's shares — canceled this week — bowed out at a price of just over $1.30.
Mirant officially begins selling stock on the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 11.
The "when-issued" prices, if they prove realistic, would allow Mirant's old stockholders to exercise the warrants they won in bankruptcy court and immediately make a small profit. Mirant's reorganization plan gives old shareholders the right to buy a limited amount of the new stock for $21.87 per share.
It would be good news, even if the profit is small compared to what many of them lost.
The trading comes as Mirant aggressively embraces its life after bankruptcy.
A day after emerging from Chapter 11, the company put out a slew of Securities and Exchange Commission filings to move it toward its relisting and unveiled a made-over corporate Web site.
The site has a new look, a new slogan — "A New Mirant: A New Opportunity" — and a new promise to its new investors.
"Your company has learned from the past and installed new discipline," the Mirant home page now says.
For its old shareholders, Mirant is now spelling out what they got out of a bankruptcy reorganization that typically leaves shareholders with nothing.
When the company begins selling stock on the New York Stock Exchange next week, Mirant's creditors will own most of it under the reorganization plan.
But old shareholders will have a small stake.
According to a communication from the company's investor relations department, the 405 million shares outstanding when Mirant filed for Chapter 11 have now been canceled.
The canceled stock will be replaced this week with 11 million shares in the new Mirant — distributed automatically to stockholders who owned Mirant until Tuesday.
Those shareholders will also get warrants, giving them the right to buy about 35 million more shares for $21.87 per share anytime in the next five years.
The shares and warrants will be allocated based on a formula. For example, a stockholder who had 1,000 shares of the old Mirant last week will own 27 shares in the reorganized Mirant this week, along with warrants to buy 87 more shares at the set price.
The $21.87 strike price is below the price Nasdaq traders are betting the new stock will be worth.
A bigger payout could still be ahead.
Stockholders also would get a 50 percent stake — after legal fees — of any proceeds of ongoing litigation, including Mirant's $2 billion claim against its former parent company, Southern Co. |
