It is often not a good omen when a company has to elongate a share flotation date. That usually means the issue has not attracted sufficient investment interest.
Inflight ATI, the Irish-based aircraft credit company, whose chairman is Albert Reynolds, had planned to have its shares launched on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, last Monday. That didn't happen and the listing has been postponed for two weeks.
Inflight is not saying what response it has had so far to the proposed £8.7 million (€11 million) placing of 11 million new shares at €1 each. But it can't have been good. Chief executive officer, Mario Cardinali, says the issue has been "very well received". The company is "breaking new ground" and now has to get the "show on the road".
The company is not saying if its connection with Derek Kelly, who was disqualified from being a director by the High Court in London, had any impact on its fund-raising exercise. Mr Kelly had only acted as an "introducer", and has had no influence on the company, nor was he involved in the formation of the company, other than being a shareholder (he has a 4.4 per cent stake), Mario Cardinali said.
Albert Reynolds stands to gain if the placing of shares is a success. He is entitled to an option for 250,000 ordinary shares in Inflight ATI at the issue price of €1 per share. And he is entitled to a fee of €57,000 (£45,000) per annum for the 12 days worked each year as chairman.
Inflight ATI, in its prospectus, says it is "in position to be the first telecommunications network service provider, for online financial transactions, in the sky". Illustrative projections shows a loss of €4.9 million in 1999/2000, reducing to a loss of €0.5 million in 2000/1 and going into profit of €5.2 million in 2001/2.
That could all be pie in the sky if the current funding operation is not successful.
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