Prime Computer Inc said it is continuing to weigh various capitalisation schemes, including capital market transactions but would not confirm a report in the Wall Street Journal that it is in the midst of talks that would lead it to going public again, Reuter reports from Boston. Prime would neither confirm nor deny the report but noted that it had long indicated in Securities & Exchange Commission filings that it was exploring financial activities, including capital market transactions. The company is labouring under an intolerable burden of $1,290m in long-term debt and the outlined in the Wall Street Journal could cut this to between $400m and $500m. Prime would repay most if not all of the $570m it owes to Shearson Lehman Brothers following the buyout, by swapping equity for debt and with proceeds from a new senior debt offering. Shearson was left holding the baby when the music stopped after the buyout: J H Whitney Co, leading the buyout, had persuaded Shearson to put up a bridging loan, and that it would easily be able to sell much of it on; in the event, the junk bond market collapsed and no-one wanted it. Under the plan outlined in the Journal, Prime would refloat under the name ComputerVision Corp, which would include the PrimeService third party maintenance business, and the vanishing minicomputer side would go in a management buyout. Prime also owes about $235m to Bank of Boston, Chemical Bank and others, $92m to Prudential Life Insurance Co and more than $400m to its bondholders.
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