Atlas Iron extends offer

Atlas Iron has extended the closing date of its $180 million capital raising at the eleventh hour.

The shareholder participation offer and general public placement were due to close at 5pm western time, but just before 3pm the company extended the raisings for another three days to 5pm on Thursday.

Atlas’ managing director David Flanagan explained the extension of the offer saying that recent uptake had been ramping up.

“The last few days have by far been the strongest period of uptake in the SPO to date. Atlas has decided to extend the closing date for the SPO and general public placement in light of this recent uptake,” Mr Flanagan said.

The planned $180 million capital raising was comprised of three separate offers, with all three undertaken at heavily discounted 5 cents a share.

These three sections were a $30 million offer to the company’s contractors, $50 million in shares offered to the general public, and $100 million worth of shares available to existing shareholders.

Capital raised by the three offers was intended to strengthen Atlas’ balance sheet so as to allow the company to weather the current volatility of the iron ore market.

It is believed the capital raising has so far attracted commitments totalling over $65 million from contractors and retail investors.

Trade in Atlas Iron’s shares has been suspended since April, having last traded at 12 cents.