Nordic

American Oriental Prices Convertible Notes

This has got to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of - unless the point of it is to get cheap stock into the hands of some big buddy - or accomplise. If you sell a convertible, you are giving somebody a call on your stock because you think you can use the cash for some better purpose - to grow the company. If you use the proceeds to buy back stock you are subverting the point of the maneuvre and don't have that cash left. The 15% premium to the present price of the stock is extremely generous to some unknown buyer and I can't get the company to tell me who it is.
Disclosure: I have been an owner of this stock for some time, but this kind of thievery makes me want to sell as soon as I can see a tolerable opportunity.

American Oriental Generates Plenty of Financial Engineering News

I wonder if AOB's manouvre is a gimic to get more shares into favored hands at a good price. First they buy back stock from the public and then are going to issue a convertible which might result in an excellent price for somebody - favored - to buy stock in the future. I tried to get information from the company's PR firm on who was going to get this privately issued convertible. They gave me some hogwash about not being able to say because it was a private matter. I may hold my stock for a while yet, but this game makes me very dubious about what kind of management we have here.