investorpaul, they have to touch it because in 2012 if BBI is...

investorpaul, they have to touch it because in 2012 if BBI is anything under $1 then everyone including the new investor will suffer dilution, they will not put any capital in with that risk.

Given that something needs to be done, they can offer cash at significant discount, if you can cancel them all for say $300 million then you make $400 million profit, all of a sudden that's far superior to three years of cheap finance.

Alternatively, convert now, again at discount, which wipes $700 million of debt off the balance sheet and prevents any dilution for the new investor. If you wait until 2012 to convert you do not get any discount, so it eliminates risk but limits the potential.

They will have to provide a reasonable offer, it's possibly to keep them in place if they wish, but they'd need to have deep pockets to cover themselves if BBI hadn't recovered enough by the time BEPPA is due.