Origin (ORG) shares came under selling pressure yesterday, as expected, after coming out of a trading halt to allow for the start of the $2.5 billion capital raising from shareholders large and small.
The shares were halted late last week to allow for the raising, which was the centre piece of $4.7 billion series of measures designed to cut debt and costs over the next couple of years.
Origin raised $1.35 billion from institutional investors, 92% of the shares on offer at $4 each and the shortfall was sold at $5.20 each to new investors in a subsequent bookbuild.
A retail offer for the remaining $1.2 billion Origin is seeking to raise will open on October 13, but market trading of entitlements to the retail portion of the issue started yesterday.
The shares opened up around 5% at $5.60 in early trading on the back of a solid night of trading offshore and big gains locally during the trading halt.
But the weight of selling told on the shares and they fell sharply in afternoon trading to be down more than 10% at $5.36 (from the close before the trading halt of $6.10). They ended up down 8.8% at $5.56.
ORG 1Y – Origin shares slip after raising
Origin shares will remain under pressure while big shareholders rejig their portfolios and prepare to be approached later this month when the size of the retail take up is known.
The issue is fully underwritten and it is likely Macquarie will have to take a swag of shares of small investors and then find homes for them at the top of the share register.
