FOUR Seas Mercantile Holdings, a distributor of Japanese snack food, said yesterday its public offering of 60.75 million shares was 562 times oversubscribed, taking $34.1 billion out of the financial system.

The company said it had received 4,891 white form applications for a total of 34.1 billion shares. Another 6.75 million shares were offered and fully subscribed by employees.

The new issue represents about 25 per cent of Four Seas' issued share capital and gives it a market capitalisation of $270 million.