PEARL SEES LISTING PLAN HELPED BY WARRANTS SWAP

UK-based closed fund insurance group Pearl announced last week that most investors asked had agreed to swap public warrants for shares, thus easing the path to a public listing for Pearl in 2010. Following its Exchange Invitation, issued on December 1, Pearl said that "we are delighted that the response from warrantholders to the Exchange Invitation was so strong, at over 99% of the maximum that we could have accepted". The warrants were initially issued in February 2008 with ABN Amro. As of December 1 there were 41m public and insider warrants. Following the settlement, 21.8m warrants were exchanged for 3.97m new shares. Pearl will now have about 130m shares in issue, consisting of 80.4m ordinary shares and 49.8m class B shares. There are a potential additional 76m ordinary and class B shares that Pearl could be required to issue in connection with outstanding warrants and contingent share rights. Pearl CEO Jonathan Moss said that the move was "an important step for Pearl in reducing the quantity of outstanding dilutive instruments and in preparing the group for a premium listing in London, which we hope to achieve in 2010".