(16th December 2003 – Australia) Beleaguered insurer and funds manager AMP has been left with a A$585 million shortfall following a A$1.2 billion rights offer to fund the split from its UK business.AMP announced today that it received acceptances from nearly 140,000 shareholders and that the A$585 million shortfall would be sold into an institutional bookbuild to be held over the next two days (16-17 December).
AMP shares will be placed in a trading halt over this period to allow the bookbuild to proceed.
Chief executive Andrew Mohl attributed the shortfall to the fact that 80 percent of AMP retail investors had received their shares at demutualisation and were not active investors.
Further, he said a number of overseas shareholders were not eligible to participate in the rights issue because of regulatory restrictions in their own markets; and that rights trading was not possible because the offer was conditional on the demerger proceeding.