Forum Archive Index - April 2000

["malcolm coleman" <malcolmcoleman@hotmail.com>]

Okay, so everone has had a chance to do some throat-clearing about 
name-calling on this forum,  which I have no time for either. My apologies 
for the post originally but I did want to draw the poison out of the wound 
so to speak.
I wondered when a line would be drawn and hopefully it now has been. So 
let's move on...
An article I found provides interesting reading about IPOs that don't live 
up to expectations.  Not drawing any comparisons, but a coincidental 
discovery in the light of disgruntlement over BEAUTYDIRECT and their launch. 
Can Investors in NZ take action if they feel they have been misled?   By the 
way does anyone work for "Avon" and are they sweating right now? Seems their 
hit-and-miss method might need to be re-evaluated, at any rate.

(following extracted from FT,  London):
"World Online's woes deepen"
By Gordon Cramb and Ian Bickerton in Amsterdam and Arkady Ostrovsky in 
London -

5 Apr 2000 23:40GMT   Shares in World Online, the Dutch-based internet 
provider, traded as low as a third of their issue level on Wednesday as 
disgruntled investors examined taking action against the company and its 
investment bank advisers.   Oscar Hammerstein, a senior Amsterdam advocate, 
said: "We are investigating bringing civil and criminal suits against the 
main players in the drama around World Online."   He said these included 
Nina Brink, its chairwoman, as well as ABN Amro Rothschild and Goldman 
Sachs, which co-ordinated a flotation last month that valued the group at 
E12.2bn($11.6bn).   Saying a lack of clarity on Ms Brink's share dealings in 
advance of the offer may have misled investors, he added in a television 
interview: "If as a result they took risks they would not normally have 
taken, there is a question of accountability."   The shares traded as low as 
E13.80, compared with an offer level of E43, before closing at E16, still 
down 8.6 per cent on the day.   Nerves showed elsewhere in the Dutch market 
for high-technology new issues. UPC, the cable operator, said it might 
postpone the May flotation of Chello, its broadband internet division, if 
conditions worsened further. Newconomy, an incubator of internet start-ups, 
halted a E70m public offering just before subscriptions were due to open on 
Thursday   It emerged meanwhile that the addition of seven lines to the 
final version of the World Online prospectus - detailing Ms Brink's transfer 
last December of most of her holding - had come on the insistence of 
Amsterdam Exchanges (AEX), operator of the Dutch equity market. The AEX said 
the preliminary document gave insufficient clarity on her transactions.   
The extra text made clear that she would under certain conditions share in 
profits made on the resale of shares she had placed with Baystar Capital. 
Baystar, a US investment fund, sold about a quarter of its 4.3 per cent 
stake as trading began, before agreeing to a six-month time limit on further 
disposals.   The AEX is investigating the case along with the STE, the Dutch 
bourse regulator, and is reviewing its practices for future listings. The 
review is expected to bring no re-tightening of recently relaxed listing 
rules, but the exchange is thought likely to demand a greater level of 
disclosure from companies coming to the market.   Market participants said 
that although information about the transfer of shares was disclosed in the 
prospectus, it was not given enough prominence or highlighted as one of the 
risks.   US institutions expressed astonishment that Ms Brink had sold the 
majority of her holding less than three months ahead of the offering - in 
which shares were floated at nearly seven times the amount she had accepted.
END

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