Butterfield Bank investors were given an insight into the bank's rights share offering at a meeting held by its management team at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess yesterday.

It was the first opportunity shareholders had to grill CEO Bradford Kopp and senior executive vice-president of Bermuda operations Michael Collins since Butterfield announced a first-quarter loss of $176.3 million earlier this week after selling off most of the toxic investments that have hit the bank's balance sheet so hard over the past two years.

A number of topics were raised from the bank's financial results to its diminished share price and signing up for the rights share issue.

The meeting, which was the second of a series which ran this week and runs into next, started with Mr. Kopp giving an overview of the bank and how it had performed over the past quarter.

He presented a breakdown of the key facts and figures as interested investors listened in to get a sense of the direction the bank was heading.

"We, in the management team, think there is a lot of opportunity to turn the bank around and get back to profitability," he said.

Handing over to Mr. Collins for the second half of the talk, the focus switched to the rights issue and the options available to shareholders.

Mr. Collins sold attendees the benefits of such an investment opportunity in the bank, drawing on what he considered to be its three most redeeming features - independence, non-alignment and full service.

He said Butterfield prided itself on being well established and well diversified, with a balance across several regions, assets, deposits and revenue streams, adding that the bank had scope for real growth through selling more products to its existing client base.

One of the big pluses for the future, he said, was the fact that private equity giant Carlyle Group and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) had each decided to pump $150 million into the bank in exchange for preferred and common shares, priced at $1.21 apiece, in a $550 million recapitalisation last month.

"The Carlyle Group and CIBC looked at the bank, did their homework and while they could have got involved in any bank, they chose to invest in us and I think they saw some value here," he said.

Mr. Collins went on to introduce the rights issue, which started on April 12 and closes on May 11, saying that they had traded between seven and eight cents since being listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange this month.

The offering includes up to 99.3 million common shares and 8.3 million contingent value preference shares totalling 107.6 million rights units, with each unit comprising 0.92308 common shares and 0.07692 contingent value preference shares. Qualifying shareholders of record as of March 10, 2010, are eligible to buy shares for $1.21 per rights issue - the same price as they were purchased by the Carlyle Group and CIBC, receiving 1.113 transferable rights units for each one exercised.

Unallocated rights shares will then be made available to qualifying shareholders who have exercised all the rights issued to them and any outstanding after that can be bought by qualifying holders of eight percent preference shares.

"It has been a rough couple of years for our shareholders, but we see the upside now and there is tremendous opportunity here," said Mr. Collins.

The pair then fielded questions from the floor, with Mr. Kopp addressing a few concerns about the rights issue, including one investor who had seen their shares fall in value and were wondering whether it was a good idea to buy into a further offering.

Mr. Kopp urged shareholders to look at their own personal financial situation, adding that the rights issue was a good proposition for the risk tolerant if they were willing to ride ups and downs of the market.

Anyone interested in exercising their rights issue or who wants more information can drop into the second floor of Butterfield Bank's Reid Street branch or contact 298-4665, email rights@butterfieldgroup.com or visit the website at www.butterfieldgroup.com/rightsoffering