The Gabelli Equity Trust (the “Fund”) is pleased to announce the
completion of its transferable rights offering (the “Offering” or
“Offer”) in which more than 27.4 million shares of common stock will be
issued, totaling approximately $157 million. Pursuant to the Offer, the
Fund issued one transferable right (a “Right”) for each share of common
stock of the Fund to shareholders of record (record date shareholders)
as of September 19, 2014. Holders of Rights were entitled to purchase
one share of common stock by submitting seven Rights and $5.75 per share
(the subscription price). The Offer expired at 5:00 PM Eastern Time on
October 20, 2014 and the Rights no longer trade on the NYSE.
Preliminary results indicate that the Fund received total subscriptions
of approximately $214 million (including over-subscription requests and
notices of guaranteed delivery) for 136% of the 27,405,612 shares
available to be issued pursuant to the primary subscription. Roughly
two-thirds of the shares to be issued were subscribed for in the primary
subscription. The over-subscription requests exceeded the
over-subscription shares available. As a result, the available
over-subscription shares will be allocated pro rata among those
fully exercising record date shareholders based on the number of Rights
originally issued to them by the Fund. The new shares of common stock
will be issued on October 27, 2014.
We thank all the full service brokers and financial advisers who
assisted our shareholders and their clients throughout the $157 million
rights offering.
The Gabelli Equity Trust Inc. is a non-diversified, closed-end
management investment company with $1.6 billion in total net assets
whose primary investment objective is long-term growth of capital. The
Fund is managed by Gabelli Funds, LLC, a subsidiary of GAMCO Investors,
Inc. (NYSE:GBL).
Investors should consider the Fund’s investment objectives, risks,
charges and expenses carefully before investing. The base prospectus
contains this and additional information about the Fund and the
prospectus supplement will contain this and additional information about
the Offering, and should be read carefully before investing.
Copyright Business Wire 2014