Screw you HSBC!

HSBC has pulled off what is my opinion is one of the biggest asshole moves a company can make.  First, they are diluting the company value and asking current investors to chip in more to keep their ownership constant.  They are offering everyone 5 shares for every 12 shares they hold, but you have to buy the 5 shares at a price of 254 pence.  Current market price is 400 pence so by my math after the dilution the market is valuing HSBC at 282 pence (400 x 12/17) so it's a discount of 30 pence, which isn't much of a bargain.

On top of all of that most everyone I know got a notice in the mail Monday evening (3/23).  The notice said that if you wanted to pay up then they needed to receive your check (in pounds sterling no less!) by 4/3 at 3pm.  If you wanted any of their other options then they had to receive the letter by 3/27 at 3pm!  And of course they're in London so we're talking a long journey in the mail.  I pretty much feel extorted by the whole situation and opted for a middle option where they sell half my shares to cover the price for the other half my shares (I guess there's some inherent value in the warrants but they never disclose that, maybe it's just the 30 pence discount!) and they'll send me however many shares come out of that.  Of course there's no way in hell they are getting my letter, mailed 3/26, so maybe I'll just get a check (cheque) out of this and have 30% of the company I rightfully owned through stock yanked out from under me.  This just doesn't seem right.