Frank - I know of a couple of very astute companies whose motto is never wait till the last minute to go to the market for money. The reason is that if you wait till the last minute, you never know what the market conditions will be and if terrible, it could be the worst time, and with no money in the treasury, begging a down market can be a waste of time. In my opinion Ashtons best course of action is to put together some more good results and get their financing done between now and July 1, 1999. The earnings for this quarter for the S&P's were very good, and will most likely be very good for July as well, thus market conditions will be very good. THere are a ton of IPO's going out in the US next week. If Ashton waits till the fall, we will most likely have a market downturn in August, (the typical August doldrums) , then we start to get into the concerns about Y2K, and possibly a continued downturn in the fall all the way into year 2000 as investors stay on the sidelines, or pull their money.
So the very best time for a financing to be sure is the period between now and about the 2nd week of July when the markets will surely peak for 1999. After mid-summer, a financing could be very iffy. Therefore, if Ashton is smart they will get out their best results very quickly, and as you say maybe get the price up to $2 or so, do another rights offering or private placement. Wonder if they will take my advicements. |
