MoviePass' parent company is delaying a shareholder vote on its reverse-split plan — again (HMNY)

MoviePass

Helios and Matheson, the parent company of MoviePass, is postponing by two weeks a vote on its plan to reverse split its stock for the second time in four months.
The delay is the second in two weeks for the company, another indication that shareholders are resistant to the plan.
Shareholders have seen their holdings in the company plunge amid its huge financial losses and its massive stock issuance.

Shareholders of the parent company of MoviePass won't be voting Thursday on its controversial plan to reverse split its stock for the second time in four months. Instead, they'll get two more weeks to weigh in.

On Wednesday, Helios and Matheson postponed a shareholder meeting that was due to take place the next day for the purpose of collecting votes on the proposal. The meeting is now scheduled to take place on November 14.

The company delayed the meeting "so that our stockholders have more time to consider and vote upon the proposed reverse stock split," it said in a letter to shareholders that was included in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The move marked the second time in two weeks Helios and Matheson has delayed the shareholder meeting. It was originally set to take place on October 18.

Investors are objecting to the plan

The company is seeking shareholder approval of a plan to dramatically reduce its number of outstanding shares. Under the proposal, Helios and Matheson would exchange one new share of its stock for anywhere from two to 500 shares that investors currently hold.

The reverse split is intended to boost the company's share price. Helios and Matheson's stock has been trading at 3 cents a share or less for more than two months. The company risks having its shares delisted from the Nasdaq market if it doesn't get them above $1 a share by December.

The delay is yet another sign that the company's proposal is running into significant resistance from investors. In addition to delaying it the first time, the company has been on a public relations blitz to try to pass it, touting support for the plan by two prominent firms that offer recommendations on shareholder votes and hiring two different firms to solicit shareholder votes.

Despite those efforts, many investors have made clear they object to the plan. Many have seen the value of their holdings in Helios and Matheson evaporate almost entirely. The company has massively diluted shareholders over the last year by issuing hundreds of millions of new shares of stock. It's further depressed the value of its shares by running up hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

The company has already reverse split its stock once this year in an effort to boost its share price. In late July, it completed a 250-1 split, which sent it stock price from below $1 a share to above $20 a share. But within a week, the stock price slipped below $1 a share again as the company issued millions of new shares to raise funds to cover its losses.

As was the case with that split, the current proposal, while reducing the company's share count, would not affect the number of shares it is authorized to issue. By passing it, investors would effectively give the company room to issue billions of new shares, further diluting their stakes.

In addition to attempting to reverse-split the stock, Helios and Matheson has proposed spinning off MoviePass as a separate company. Even if it did so, Helios and Matheson would retain a majority stake in the money-losing movie ticket service.