capital reorganisation

hey guys. I had this email from my broker regarding a company that I'm invested in;

"The company has announced that it intends to reduce the nominal value of the company’s A and B ordinary shares, subject to shareholder approval.

Terms
Each of the issue A ordinary shares of 10p will be subdivided and redesignated into 1 new ordinary share and 1 deferred share.

Deferred shares
The deferred shares will have no voting rights and will not carry any entitlement to attend general meetings, nor will they be admitted to Aim or any other market. They will carry only a priority right to participate in any return of capital to the extent of GBP1 in aggregate over the class. In addition, they will carry only a priority right to participate in any dividend or other distribution to the extent of GBP1 in aggregate over the class.

In each case, a payment to any one holder of Deferred Shares shall satisfy the payment required. The Company will be authorised at any time to effect a transfer of the Deferred Shares without reference to the holders thereof and for no consideration. Accordingly, the Deferred Shares will, for all practical purposes, be valueless and it is the Board`s intention, at an appropriate time, to have the Deferred Shares cancelled, whether through an application to the Companies Court or otherwise.

Existing share certificates will continue to be valid following the Capital Reorganisation and no certificates will be issued in respect of the Deferred Shares."

wondering what I should do about it? As the current value of the shares is 5p, would I lose out by letting them go ahead? as I understand it, they would halve the number of shares but double their value, meaning the value of my investment wouldn't change?
What would you do? vote for or against? or sell your shares before the vote? bit of a newcomer, so struggling to get my head around this.

thanks in advance!

Malc

Malc,

Sounds like a scrip issue. This usually happens when prices reach a (perceived) high value which may hinder liquidity of shares. But this does sound a bad deal - same number of existing shares but 50% less voting rights via deferred shares; no listing for deferred shares; eventual cancellation of deferred shares at no cost(?). Suspicious.

Grant.