BLACKBERRY LTD. $9.36 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 524.6 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blackberry.com) has sold an additional $250 million worth of convertible debentures (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars) to its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings (Toronto symbol FFH).
Fairfax now holds $500 million of these debentures, which it can convert into BlackBerry common shares at $10.00 a share. If it did, Fairfax would own 17.6% of the total shares outstanding.
The extra cash should help the smartphone maker complete its restructuring, which includes cutting 40% of its workforce and focusing on corporate and government clients. However, the stock will remain volatile until its revenue and earnings improve.
BlackBerry is still a hold, but only for highly aggressive investors.