Excitement backs a Tampa company setting out to recover a treasure held in trust since 1694.
By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published May 28, 2003
TAMPA - Investors reacted enthusiastically Tuesday to news that British authorities had approved Odyssey Marine Exploration's planned recovery of a 17th-century British shipwreck, the HMS Sussex.
Inspired by articles in Sunday's New York Times and Monday's International Herald Tribune, investors bought and sold the Tampa company's stock at more than 11 times the normal daily pace, driving the price up 11 percent, or 13 cents, to $1.33 per share. Stock exchanges were closed Monday because of Memorial Day.
"I think a lot of people have been waiting to see whether we would get our project plan approved before buying the company's stock," vice president of research and operations Greg Stemm said in an e-mail message.
Even if Odyssey's expedition is successful, yielding millions or even billions of dollars from the sale of gold coins and other cargo, the benefit to regular shareholders will be diluted.
Britain's approval of the plan was predicated in part on a revenue-sharing agreement that gives it 20 percent of the first $45-million in proceeds, half of the next $455-million, and 60 percent of everything above $500-million, net of selling expenses, plus a cut of income from intellectual property and Sussex merchandise. The government also will keep items deemed "culturally significant," Stemm said.
Still other slices of the Sussex revenue pie are spoken for. In 1999, the company completed an $825,000 private placement whose purchasers are entitled to 100 percent of the first $825,000 in gross revenues from the expedition, 24.75 percent of revenues between $4-million and $35-million, and 12.375 percent of revenues above $35-million, according to a company document filed with regulators Tuesday. A separate 1998 deal entitles an Odyssey subcontractor to an additional 5 percent.
Additional funds must be raised before Odyssey can conduct its 100-day expedition, which could mean still more dilution. The company will soon offer another "private placement," though not to members of the general public.
Odyssey is hunting six other potentially lucrative shipwrecks. The company had no revenues in fiscal year 2002.
