Well Hello, Newcrest Newcrest Mining raised far more than it needed for the $US460 million purchase of the royalty stream from Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Norte gold project in Ecuador, leading some to question what else is in store for the miner.
One school of thought is that it tapped the market for $1.1bn through a placement and share purchase plan simply out of caution, but others say if there are any companies positioned for acquisitions, it is the miners.
As part of the transaction, Newcrest is securing 34 per cent of the mine’s free cashflow over the next five years.
Newcrest said it would use the remainder of the cash to fund early works at its emerging Havieron discovery in Western Australia, near its Telfer mine, and for expansion work at its Red Chris operations.
Analysts say conditions are ripe for well-capitalised miners to embark on mergers and acquisitions in coming months. They say few opportunities come along to buy groups at distressed prices that have good cash flow. The risk for groups like Newcrest is if they do not act now, they may miss an opportunity.
At the onset of the coronavirus crisis, gold miners were expected to be more likely to raise funds than other groups as they capitalised on the strong price of the commodity.
The $1bn placement and $100m share purchase plan was another win for Macquarie Capital, which has been a key player in recent equity raisings. Macquarie worked on the deal with RBC Capital Markets.
Shares were sold at $25.60, a 7 per cent discount to the last closing price of $27.54, and the raise represented 5.1 per cent of the Newcrest shares on issue.
Newcrest already owns a 32 per cent stake in Lundin, having first bought into the company in early 2018 in a $US250m deal to acquire 27 per cent of its stock. It topped up its holding in late 2019.
Lundin acquired the $US700m Fruta Del Norte from fellow Canadian miner Kinross Gold in 2014 for $US240m and is expected to produce an average 310,000oz of gold per year over a 15-year life.
Elsewhere, logistics company Qube Holdings announced the terms of its equity raising on Thursday, securing $500m through UBS and Bank of America. It opted for an entitlement offer structure, where shareholders receive 1 share for every 6.35 they hold.
Shares were sold at $1.95 each, an 11.8 per cent discount to the last closing price of $2.20.
It comes after The Australian revealed the raise on Sunday. The funds are being used to strengthen the group’s balance sheet and pursue growth.
DATAROOM EDITOR
Bridget Carter has worked as a writer and editor for The Australian’s DataRoom column since it was launched in 2013, focusing on capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and investment banking....
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