THE directors of Western Australian home insulation firm Cool or Cosy are cashing in after almost 20 years in operation with a planned $7.4 million public listing.
The company, founded in 1984, has lodged a prospectus to raise $1.7 million through the issue of 8.5 million, 20-cent shares.
The IPO comes just before an expected mandatory code comes into force on July 1 through new guidelines created by the Building Code of Australia.
The directors have budgeted for $200,000 of the money raised to be used preparing for the mandatory requirements, another $200,000 for assessing acquisition opportunities and $100,000 to develop overseas markets. In addition, $200,000 has been allocated to cover costs of the issue, $700,000 for working capital and $300,000 for a domestic expansion program.
The existing owners, who include the founders, managing director Mario Di Lallo, Peter Roberts and executive directors Anthony Iezzi and Ronald Sanders, will maintain a 76.9 per cent hold on listing as well as receive a dividend of $2.15 million. The directors, who paid just $529,526, or 1.87 cents per share for their 76.5 per cent stake, will, on listing, be sitting on shares worth around $5.73 million. Upon listing, scheduled for May 30, 75 per cent of their shareholding is voluntarily escrowed for 12 months, restricting the trade in the already tightly held company.
Berkeley in the race
NOT all are finding the investment market easy to break into. Berkeley Resources Limited has extended its offer yet again, until June, following an earlier extension in February. The company, sponsored by broker Hogan & Partners, was expecting to close the $4.6 million offer for 22.25 million, 20-cent shares on April 30. The company hopes to use the money raised to develop gold, nickel and diamond exploration projects at Coolgardie, the Kimberley, the Pilbara and Northern Territory. A prospectus was first issued on January 14 and was due to close on March 28.
Berkeley Resources has secured 821 square metres in the Berkeley River Project and has budgeted for exploration around $1.2 million over the next two years.
Chameleon unchanged
ANOTHER Western Australian company to bring together a pool of exploration tenements is Chameleon Mining NL. The junior explorer, with tenements in WA and Fiji, issued a prospectus to raise $7.5 million in February, which was scheduled to close on March 14.
WA Business News reported on February 13 how managing director Greg Barnes was “staggered by the level of interest”.
Then, on March 18, the company announced “encouraging interest from UK investors following a roadshow by Chameleon Mining in London”, which had led to the company extending the closing date of its IPO till April 7.
“I have recently returned from a roadshow in London where we had a lot of interest from institutional investors. The board decided to extend our IPO to give these investors an opportunity to invest in the company,” Mr Barnes said.
The company has since posted another press release identical to the first and also dated March 18, but with new dates superimposed. The press release said that, following the recent roadshow in London, the offer was extended to close on May 16, with listing on the Australian Stock Exchange scheduled for May 30.