Capital News
Aurubis has carried out a capital increase by way of an accelerated bookbuilding process. By partly utilizing its authorized capital, the copper producer increased its common stock by €10,462,653.44, as was announced on 12 January after market close. Against cash contributions and to the exclusion of subscription rights of existing shareholders, 4,086,974 new shares were placed with German and international institutional investors. the transaction will bring the copper group €169.6 million. Salzgitter has let its share in Europe's largest copper smelter be diluted.
With the help of Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and UBS, Commerzbank called in part of its hybrid papers and converted it into 118,135,291 shares, it was announced. The share capital thus increased by ten percent minus one share. The new shares of the bank were placed at €5.30 each, a discount of six percent from the closing price on 13 January. The issue, with a volume of €626 million, had been oversubscribed many times. The consortium thus picked up the hybrid securities at prices significantly below their face value. Depending on the type of papers issued by Commerzbank and its subsidiary Eurohypo, the offer saw markdowns of between 30 and 50 percent. With the conversion Commerzbank captured an IFRS pre-tax profit of some €300 million. The capital in the amount of 3.48 billion euros is now divided into 1.34 billion shares at €2.60 each.
Conergy has announced the loss of half its share capital of €398,088,928. The solar installations maker exempted certain of its subsidiaries, as planned, from their debts. This resulted in a loss of some €190 million, meaning the capital has fallen by almost half, said the solar company in Hamburg on 14 January. In an extraordinary general meeting convened for 25 February a capital reduction in an eight to one ratio to €49,761,116, followed by a capital increase in cash and kind to €188 million, is now proposed.
Sky Deutschland major shareholder News Corp has as announced subscribed a convertible loan to News Adelaide Holdings of €164.6 million. The convertible bond can be converted into 53,914,182 personal shares from conditional capital. The pay-TV broadcaster has taken in a total of €342 million, through a capital increase at the end of September 2010 and now the convertible bond. The additional funding of €58 million, announced on 12 January, is provided in the form of a shareholder loan from News Adelaide Holdings by 21 December at latest.