H2O America slips on $325 mln convertible offering
BUZZ-H2O America slips on $325 mln convertible offering ** Shares of water utility H2O America HTO.O down 0.5% at $58.30 premarket on Fri after capital raise secured
** San Jose, California-based HTO late Thurs announced pricing 6.5 mln equity units at $50 for $325 mln raise
** 3-yr mandatory convertible units have 7.75% annual dividend; threshold appreciation price of $68.82 represents 17.5% premium over stock's last close (the reference price)
** HTO stock fell 5.2% to $58.57 on Thurs after co launched the offering for general purposes, including acquisitions, capex or debt repayment
** Wells Fargo and JP Morgan joint bookrunners
** Co, which provides water and wastewater services in California, Connecticut, Maine and Texas, has roughly $2.8 bln market cap
** Through Thurs, stock up ~20% YTD
** 5 of 7 analysts rate the stock "strong buy" or "buy", 2 "hold"; median PT $65, per LSEG data
(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)
((lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))