By Mauro Orru

Ams AG's shares plunged Wednesday after reporting a 70% take-up of shares in its rights issue.

At 0844 GMT, Ams shares traded 8.8% lower.

The Austrian sensor maker, which is listed in Switzerland, launched the rights issue at a price of 9.20 Swiss francs ($9.55) a share after approval at an extraordinary general meeting in January to raise about CHF1.75 billion to partially refinance the acquisition of lighting-technology company Osram Licht AG.

However, investors have taken up 132,475,209 shares--70% of 189,869,454 offered shares--generating a return of around CHF1.22 billion.

The company said the remaining 30% would be taken up by syndicate banks.

Analysts at Swiss bank Credit Suisse said they "see challenges continuing to stack up" for Ams given the lower-than-expected take-up rate for the rights issue compounded by high leverage to fund the acquisition.

Ams said on March 20 that it expected its public offer for Osram Licht to close in the second quarter of 2020 pending regulatory approvals.

Ams launched a new offer through its subsidiary Ams Offer GmbH in November at 41 euros ($44.25) a share to take over Osram Licht, lowering the minimum acceptance threshold to 55%, which was reached in early January 2020.

Ams's previous offer failed as its 62.5% threshold wasn't reached.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 01, 2020 05:11 ET (09:11 GMT)

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