THE buoyant stock market has allowed a growing number of Western Australian companies to conduct substantial capital raisings over recent weeks.
Aquarius Platinum, Central Kalgoorlie Gold Mines and Dragon Mining are among the latest WA stocks to undertake capital raisings.
These capital raisings, combined with a flurry of IPOs, are also great news for leading broking firms.
Aquarius raised $23.4 million last week through a placement to clients of Euroz.
Dragon raised $5 million through Macquarie and Royal Bank of Canada, while CKGM is raising $2 million through Transocean Securities and Montagu Stockbrokers.
A much bigger transaction was last week’s $63.6 million capital raising by gold and tantalum producer Sons of Gwalia, through Macquarie and Goldman Sachs JB Were.
Sons of Gwalia adopted the increasingly common practice of raising funds through an institutional placement, then inviting retail shareholders to participate through a share purchase plan.
Adelaide-based Beach Petroleum has adopted the same approach for its $34 million capital raising, managed and underwritten by Euroz and Paterson Ord Minnett.
Wine producer Evans & Tate broke this pattern, opting for a rights issue in conjunction with institutional placements to raise a total of $19 million.
While most companies have chosen to raise extra capital in the form of ordinary shares, investment manager Great Southern Plantations ($55 million) and oil and gas producer Amity Oil ($10 million) chose to issue convertible notes.