Arcam AB fka AMAVF

[Tom Joad]

Suggestions? Trading in Arcam rights

Just got off the phone with Scottrade armed with letters from both Carnegie Bank in Sweden with the actual 72 page prospectus attached, and, yes, Magnus Renee's email. (He is the contact listed on the Nordic Nasdaq site. I would've thought the CFO would be.) Scottrade has no mechanism by which one can trade in rights issues, and it doesn't look like they're going to create one. There is no way to buy shares in the rights issue.

AMAVF is an ORD listing at Scottrade. Their link to International Investing has the following-

Special Risk Factors of International Investing
Although you take risks when you invest in any stock or security, international investing has some special risks.These special risks include changes in currency exchange rates; political, economic and social events; potential for illiquid markets; less information; reliance on foreign legal remedies; and different market structures and operations.

I was told that I might be able to transfer the shares I own to another broker that will provide an avenue for trading. Any suggestions?


I'm not so sure Scottrade, now actually Ameritrade, or Schwab are accurately informed. Somebody on Scottrade's staff had to read the prospectus, pretty much 72 pages of legal document. They had a couple of dates. One was correct, the October 19 date of record. They had another, November 30, which is when "trading in New Shares converted from BTA 2 is expected to commence." BTA's are paid subscribed shares." BTA 2 is the second series of paid subscribed shares. Scottrade had all of that condensed into little that was meaningful over the phone. Then there was Schwab's interpretation of subscription rights and how many shares one was allowed to buy, which was off by a factor of 25.

What have we learned? There are special risks in International Investing. The other risk is that brokerages don't always get the details right. I may end up swallowing the dilution. At least it's not the worst dilution hit I've taken.