Bega Cheese shares went into a trading halt yesterday to allow for a $200 million fundraising, while Ausdrill revealed it had got better than expected support from shareholders in its $75 million retail offer.
Bega requested the trading halt before the market opened on Monday morning, and said that the funds would be raised via a placement of shares to institutional investors.
A price was not given (the shares closed at $7.58 last Friday) but these types of issue are done at a discount to the most recent price.
This issue will be followed by a share purchase plan for ordinary shareholders, Bega said.
Bega’s release to the market did not specify what it planned to do with the funds.
The company recently acquired a large scale dairy processing facility in Victoria’s western areas at Koroit, from the Canadian owned Saputo, and took a stakeholding in honey producer Capilano. the cost for this was around $250 million.
The trading halt runs until tomorrow.
Ausdrill says its retail entitlement offer raised a total of $77 million, a bit more than the $75 million targetted. The company previously raised $175 million from big shareholders in August.
