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Strategies & Market Trends : Shorting stocks: Broken stocks - Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (2042)	12/20/1998 7:44:00 AM
From: Q.	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 2506

BTIM's rights offering looks interesting: A rights offering is an offering to shareholders of the right to buy a share at a below-market price. Rights offerings are pretty unusual, except for closed end fund, which do it as their only way of increasing the funds under management, and therefore the management fee. When a CEF does it, the share price almost always falls. That's because ... The effect of a rights offering is that the shareholder either ponies up cash to avoid dilution, or he gets diluted. There are lots of arbitrage schemes to play this. Here's one: buy the stock before the record date and attempt to oversubscribe the rights offering, while shorting an equal number of shares. If you are successful in oversubscribing and the stock price goes down less than the 33% discount on the new shares, then you come out ahead. The rights will trade separately, so there are probably some interesting arb plays there, too. BTIM, is, BTW, an Asensio short. Here's the co. profile, which shows a low cash position, astronomical price multiples, and more: biz.yahoo.com Here's the S-3 they filed for the new shares: edgar-online.com Here's the news release: BERKELEY, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 18, 1998--BioTime, Inc. (NASDAQ:BTIM) announced today that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer up to 501,629 common shares through a rights offering to its existing shareholders. BioTime has set January 5, 1999 as the tentative record date for determining shareholders entitled to receive the rights. The rights will entitle holders to purchase new shares at a discount from the market price. The subscription price per share has not yet been set but will not be greater than 66.67% of the average of the last sale price of the common shares in the Nasdaq National Market for the last five trading days preceding the commencement of the offer. The rights offering will provide BioTime the opportunity to raise additional capital without diluting the ownership interests of existing shareholders who exercise their rights, and without paying underwriting commissions and expenses. Shareholders who exercise their rights will be able to purchase shares at a price below market, without incurring broker's commissions, and will be able to maintain their pro rata share of the Company's equity. Shareholders who fully exercise their rights will also be entitled to the additional privilege of purchasing, subject to certain limitations and allocation, any common shares not acquired by holders of rights who allow their rights to expire unexercised. In addition, if the rights offering is over-subscribed, up to 250,000 additional common shares may be allocated and sold to shareholders who exercise the over-subscription privilege. The rights will be freely tradeable, and BioTime expects that the rights will be listed for trading on Nasdaq. The Company expects that the rights will trade for 21 days or longer if the offer is extended. The distribution of the rights and commencement of the period will not occur until the registration statement becomes effective. The expiration date of the rights will not be set until the distribution date of the rights has been determined. A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such State. A copy of a written prospectus may be obtained from the Secretary of BioTime, 935 Pardee Street, Berkeley, California 94710 after the registration statement becomes effective. BioTime, headquartered in Berkeley, Calif., is engaged in the research and development of blood plasma volume expanders, blood replacement solutions during hypothermic (low temperature) surgery, organ preservation solutions and technology for use in surgery, emergency trauma treatment, the preservation of organs awaiting transplant, and other applications. CONTACT: BioTime, Inc. Victoria Bellport, 510/845-9535