As part of a drive to remove debt from its balance sheet, Somers Ltd has increased the volume of its issued shares by more than 50 per cent since the end of March.

That includes two significant transactions involving its major shareholders that resulted in Permanent Investments Ltd leapfrogging UIL Ltd as the company’s single biggest shareholder.

Those transactions were reported in a filing with the Bermuda Stock Exchange yesterday.

Somers is a BSX-listed financial services holding company. It is the parent company of Bermuda Commercial Bank, and has a major stake in Bermudian-based West Hamilton Holdings.

Around the world it has stakes in a number of companies, including Homeloans Ltd in Australia, and Waverton Investment Management Ltd in the UK.

At the end of March, Somers had a diluted net asset value per share of $17.79, with 12.3 million common shares issued. At the time its shares were trading at $12. The shares yesterday closed at $13.

In the latest filing, the company reported that as a result of a conversion notice from Permanent Investments relating to $41.1 million of a convertible loan note, PIL has been issued with a further 2.33 million Somers shares.

In addition, UIL Ltd, which previously held the largest single stake in Somers, will be issued with a further 2.45 million shares through a bonus warrant facility that allows current shareholders to purchase an additional two shares at $13.50 for every five they already hold.

That programme is limited to 4,837,066 bonus warrant shares, and was announced last week. Warren McLeland, chairman of Somers, said the bonus warrant issue offer would enable the company to reduce its debt burden and free up cash flow for investment opportunities.

As a result of the transactions involving PIL and UIL, PIL will see its stake in Somers increase to 45.9 per cent, up from 34 per cent at the end of March. Meanwhile, UIL’s stake will be 44.2 per cent, down from the 49.75 per cent it held on March 31.

The total number of Somers shares issued will be 19,453.437, giving the company a market capitalisation of $252.9 million based on the current share price.

Earlier this week Somers announced the sale of its entire investment in Ascot Lloyd, a British-based independent financial adviser.