Rebel Geoff Wilson rings ASX bell on real-time raisings MAVERICK investor Geoff Wilson will today be first to try the Australian Securities Exchange's new real-time system of capital raising, On-Market Bookbuilds, officially launched last week. Wilson's WAM Capital licensed investment company will seek to place about $15 million worth of stock left over from a recent dividend reinvestment plan, as a test of a system designed to make capital raising simpler, cheaper and more transparent. It works within the ASX's equity trading system to show how demand meets price, as opposed to the system whereby brokers are tempted to nominate prices that would be most advantageous for their clients. "The downside's zero and the upside's significant, " said Mr Wilson of the system, devised about five years ago, the work of lawyer and former Macquarie Bank investment banker Ben Bucknell. "We'll be throwing the bait out and seeing what sort of bids we get by the close of trade on Tuesday," said Mr Wilson, who asked for the stock to be put in a trading halt before the market opens today. Some brokers are reportedly concerned the new system could take away a revenue stream. "It's going to be interesting because it might upset some of the bigger investment banks, but it will offer better access to the smaller brokers," he said. At this point it will be open only to sophisticated investors in secondary raisings, and will stay that way unless the Australian Securities & Investments Commission allows a Class Order relief declaring that all the relevant information on the issue has already been released. There is a push to make such raisings more available to ordinary retail investors in the way that initial public offerings are because they have to have prospectuses. "We'd certainly prefer these offerings to be open to every investor," said Mr Wilson. Experts say that, given ASIC can already provide Class Order relief to retail investors to get access to raisings such as today's, it would not be difficult to alter the law as long as there remained protection for retail investors. A likely complication of today's raising is that not all brokers will understand it, even though, as Mr Wilson put it, "It's incredibly simple once they get it." Also, eligible investors need to sign an updated client agreement, which a number of market participants, including at least one major investment bank, have so far not prepared. Brokers have reportedly had seven weeks to arrange them. If this raising or others go off strongly, laggards may get some lively phone calls from investors wanting to know why they cannot subscribe to a share issue at a likely discount.