Aiforia’s justifications that the directed issue must be arranged because markets are unstable and challenging are complete nonsense. According to the law, a directed issue must have weighty financial grounds. The mere usual cost-effectiveness of a directed issue compared to a general subscription issue does not make the directed issue legal, so the board would likely lose that case if it went to court. However, directed issues are a relatively new phenomenon in Hesuli (Helsinki Stock Exchange), so the limits of “weightiness” have not yet been properly tested, which is why there is a lot of creativity and imagination used in justifying directed issues. In that announcement, Aiforia’s board lists many general truths, such as institutions’ ability to raise money more easily and the fact that not all shareholders necessarily subscribe for their full entitlements in general issues. These always-true statements were, of course, known to the parliament when the law was written, and therefore cannot in any way constitute a special reason to deviate from a shareholder’s fundamental rights.
Until the law is hopefully changed someday to somehow take into account the rationality and convenience of directed issues, all issues should, in principle, always be arranged as general subscription issues.