ECM announced on Friday after close that it is studying possible redemption of its outstanding warrants. Redemption of the warrants is possible via repurchase on the stock-exchange or off-exchange, or by means of public offer. The decision on possible redemption of ECM's warrants could come during the second half of 2007. Company subsequently plans to cancel all the warrants redeemed.
Our view:
Company has 1.7m outstanding warrants (almost 700,000 belonging to majority shareholder Mr. Milan Janku and 1.0m to other shareholders) with the exercise price EUR 22.2 each. Should all outstanding warrants (not only Mr. Janku’s warrants) are executed the total number of outstanding shares would increase by 44.7% to 5.6m as the conversion ratio is 1:1. This would lead to dilution of last reported NAV of EUR 52.3/share to approx. EUR 44.0/share. This would imply increase of P/NAV multiple from 1.11x to 1.32x. We believe that real estate developers deserves premium to their NAV, however with the recent sell-off in real estate segment we see better value in Orco, which currently trades at par.