Equatorial plans $25.6m placement

Equatorial Resources has announced plans for an institutional placement to raise $25.6 million to accelerate the company's drilling and exploration activities in the Republic of Congo.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Equatorial said that it intends to make a placement of up to 14.2 million shares at $1.80 each in two tranches.

The company said first tranche of 11.2 million shares will be issued immediately.

The remaining tranche of 3 million shares will be issued following shareholder approval at a general meeting.

The placement is predominantly being made to two London-based clients of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and is being managed by Azure Capital in collaboration with GMP Securities Europe LLP and Argonaut Securities.

Equatorial has two projects in the Republic of Congo, the Mayoko-Moussondji Iron Project and the Badondo Iron Project.

"We are extremely pleased to have attracted institutional investors of such high calibre," said managing director and CEO of Equatorial John Welborn.

"They will provide us with a significantly enhanced profile in the United Kingdom and European markets.

"Funds raised from the placement will put us in a very strong financial position and will allow Equatorial to continue to accelerate our exploration activities on both of our Republic of Congo projects.

"The quality of the strategic and institutional investors being attracted to our register is testament to the quality of the Company's iron projects in West Africa and reinforces both the high prospectively of our tenements as well as the importance of our access to rail and deep water port infrastructure."