Righst issues

An article in The Age (that I can't find onlnine, but an abstract is here. According to some Monash & Birmingham University academics, the way in which a company chooses to raise capital impacts on reputation and even company value. Balachandran, Faff and Theobald have an article in the Journal of Financial Economics. Abstract of the journal article on SSRN here.

Rights issues - disappearing?

Possibly, according to Bryan Frith in The Australian. They are being replaced by "accelerated renounceable entitlement offers". Primarily it seems to reduce the risk faced by underwriters.