Bellevue Gold shares dive on discounted equity raise
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The news: Bellevue Gold shares crashed on the ASX after the gold miner completed an equity raising at a 15.3% discount to Wednesday's closing share price.
The numbers: Bellevue was the worst performing stock across the ASX 200 by midday AEST, with shares tumbling 22.4% to $1.42. Meanwhile, the wider materials sector was the best performing sector, adding 1.54%.
On Thursday, the gold miner launched a $150 million institutional placement to support the partial repayment of its project loan facility with Macquarie Bank, with the aim of unlocking operating cash flow to self-fund its new five-year growth plan.
The offer price of $1.55 per share represented a 15.3% discount to Wednesday's closing price of $1.83. Bellevue will also launch a share purchase plan, targeting to raise a further $25 million at the same discounted share price.
The context: Bellevue said the placement received "very strong" support from existing and new domestic and offshore institutions, with overall demand received for new shares "strongly in excess" of the placement size.
What they said: Bellevue's managing director and CEO Darren Stralow said: "We are extremely pleased with the very strong support for the placement from both our shareholders as well as new investors".
"With the benefit of the enhanced financial flexibility we now have, our team's focus will continue to be on unlocking the capability and value of this special mining operation by materially growing production and reducing costs, in order to maximise free cash flows and returns for our shareholders," he said.
The source: ASX announcement
