Investors tackle surge in mergers and rights issues with timetotrade

New timetotrade Share Reorganisation Calculator helps UK investors to model the impact of share reorganisations such as mergers, rights issues and takeovers - and their resulting tax implications.

There has been a surge in share reorganisations this year as companies take radical steps to survive the current liquidity crisis and inject fresh capital onto their balance sheets through mergers, rights issues and open offers. But what does this mean for investors who own shares in these companies? Shareholders not only need to assess the immediate impact the reorganisations will have on their portfolio (and their purse), but also ensure they correctly account for the reorganisation transactions in their portfolios in order to calculate future tax liabilities. These calculations can be particularly onerous if the reorganisation includes the issue of a second class of share or cash payment. Help is at hand, timetotrade has added a new share reorganisation calculator to its Portfolio and Tax Management tools, which enables investors to model the impact of: rights issues, takeovers, mergers, open offers, share splits, capital reorganisations, scrip issues, and spin-offs. The tool can be found at http://www.timetotrade.eu

Investors can use the timetotrade share reorganisation calculator to work out:

• How much additional expenditure is required to take up the prospective share reorganisations such as rights issues or open offers.

• The costs that need to be apportioned if the reorganisation involves the issue of a second class of share or cash payment.

• The tax liabilities associated with the disposal of any shares that have been impacted by the share reorganisation

In the first half of 2008 companies raised $96bn(*) in Europe through rights issues, whilst expenditure on mergers and acquisitions by UK companies rose from £4.3bn(**) in the first quarter of 2008 to £8.7bn in the second quarter of this year. The complicated nature of share re-organisations can leave investors perplexed. Dary McGovern MD of timetotrade says, “With the cost of debt so high, companies are exploring all manner of alternatives to pull in new capital. Which is all well, but for the investors who have to work out how their portfolio and tax liabilities will be affected - it can be incredibly confusing. This is where timetotrade can help out.”

FURTHER INFORMATION

What is a Share Reorganisation

A Share Reorganisation is a general term used to describe a range of share transactions that include:

• Share Splits & Consolidations
• Scrip, Bonus & Capitalisation Issues
• Right Issues & Open Offers
• Scrip Dividends
• Capital Reorganisation Issues
• Take-overs & Mergers
• Spin-offs & De-mergers

SOURCES

(*) Thomson Reuters (**) Office for National Statistics

Further reading

• A Beginners Guide to Capital Gains Tax
• Capital Gains Tax User Manual
• Latest timetotrade Press Releases