Sucampo Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SCMP) announced that the the only holder of its Class B shares had converted them all into Class A common stock on a one-to-one basis after an outpouring from investors over the voting divide. Class B shares each had ten votes while Class A shares have only one vote. The 26M shares of Class B stock were held by S&R Technology Holdings, which is owned by Sucampo CEO Ryuji Ueno and his wife. Now that all stock is classified under the same umbrella with equal voting power, the company has 41.9M shares outstanding; senior management still owns more than 60%. The conversion indicates that management is listening to shareholders. With one class of shares, Sucampo has opened more strategic alternatives for the company and investors will note this, moving shares higher.
Sucampo reported strong earnings in early August, which you can read about in our earlier coverage.
