Amdocs Ltd., a St. Louis-based provider of billing and related systems to telecommunications carriers, on June 7 sold 20 million shares of its common stock, priced at $22.44 each, in a secondary offering on the New York Stock Exchange.
Of the total sale, 18 million shares were sold by insiders, which include Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, SBC International Inc. and Amdocs International Ltd., a private investment company. These principal shareholders retained at least 80 percent of their current stake in the company after the add-on stock sale, Amdocs said.
Concurrently, Amdocs International Ltd. sold a separate offering of 10 million Trust Automatic Common Exchange Securities, also priced at $22.44 each. TRACES are a new kind of hybrid equity security.
Each TRACES represents the right to receive an annual distribution of $1.51. At their three-year maturity date, holders of each Amdocs TRACES must exchange them for between 0.84 and one share of Amdocs common stock or the cash equivalent.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. was lead manager of the offerings, whose proceeds will be used for bank debt repayment, working capital and general corporate purposes.
