The Market Online - At The Bell

Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights

Welcome to the Market Herald’s Friday review of the week in capital raisings.

Of interest to many investors is DeGrey Mining’s (ASX:DEG) announcement today that it has secured firm commitments to raise $125 million for its Mallina Gold Project pre-feasibility study, further drilling and exploration across the company’s 150km of tenements.

Institutions within Australia and abroad took part in the placement, with shares issued at $1.10. The company’s shares opened just above that price at $1.11 on Friday. DEG’s market cap is $1.56 billion.

Meanwhile, a Tasmanian whisky company is pursuing an aggressive growth strategy. From humble beginnings 30 years ago, the award-winning Lark Distilling Co (ASX:LRK) turned profitable last year for the first time.

Now the ASX-listed company is raising $53 million to acquire another local whisky producer, Pontville Distillery and Estate, in a $40 million deal, where it’s planning to construct a million-litre distillery.

As well as buying the Pontville business and its infrastructure, the deal brings in large quantities of maturing whisky, which will allow The House of Lark to fill a shortfall and start exporting a year ahead of schedule.

MD Geoff Bainbridge said Lark faced financial difficulties several years ago and didn’t produce whisky.

“When I looked in the whisky stores, I went ‘hang on – where’s the whisky for next year?’,” he said.

“We have momentum, but without whisky we can’t capitalise on the momentum, so we’ve had a history of acquiring whisky from other distillers and then working it into the Lark finishing program and creating the Lark look and feel.

“Through this business (Pontville) we acquire 480,000L of whisky, 29 per cent of it is available this year and next financial year, so that addresses that flat spot and, in particular, what it means is, we can start exporting. “

Lark Distilling Co’s SPP opens on Monday in a bid to raise another $5 million.

The company has a market cap of $347.08 million and shares opened at $5.54, above the $5 share purchase plan issue price.

The full video interview with Mr Bainbridge will be uploaded here in The Market Herald Deal Room on Monday, October 25.

Also on the Apple Isle, is Pure Foods Tasmania (ASX:PFT).

It’s building a suite of premium local plant-based foods to market throughout Australia and internationally.

The company has raised $5.3 million through unsecured convertible notes so it can be acquisition ready and also extend some of its existing product ranges.

Managing Director and CEO Michael Cooper said the company was eyeing additional Tasmanian-made premium plant-based food products.

“We’ve grown at 137% which is a record quarter for us,” he said. 

“In September alone, we did our December numbers, so sales have been extremely strong.”

Shares opened at 53 cents this morning. The company has a market cap of $30.52 million. 

The Deal Room also explored capital raising this week by: 

  • Titomic Ltd (ASX:TTT), which has an SPP opening on Monday; 
  • Security Matters (ASX: SMX) which raised $3.1M;
  • Kingwest Resources (ASX:KWR) which secured $4M; and,  
  • Cannon Resources (ASX:CNR) which also raised $4M. 

For more information, enter your companies of interest in the search tab here at The Market Herald.

There were seven IPO debuts on the ASX this week, mostly by minerals companies. 

The Market Herald Deal Room looked at one of those companies, ActivePort Group (ASX:ATV), which listed on Wednesday and sells software that equips business customers to manage all their global networks from just one screen.

The first days of trade were low volume and below opening price.  

ActivePort CEO and MD Karim Nejaim said the listing was an exciting milestone, but the company would now have to prove its worth.

“I think it’s less about confusion around what we do and more around, ‘ok, now we’d like to see where ActivePort can take this’,” Mr Nejaim said.  

“If it had shot up dramatically, that would have been interesting for the company, but then we would have been concerned about it dropping out, as a lot of IPOs do.”

ActivePort’s market cap is $45.79M and share trade opened at 18.5c this morning.

For more information on these, or any other ASX-listed companies, head to the search tab on this website.

Of interest to many investors will be DeGrey Mining’s (ASX:DEG) announcement today that it has secured firm commitments to raise $125 million for its Mallina Gold Project pre-feasibility study, further drilling and exploration across the company’s 150km of tenements.

Institutions within Australia and abroad took part in the placement, with shares issued at $1.10.

Today the company’s shares opened just above that price at $1.11. DEG’s market cap is about one and a half billion dollars. ($1.56B)

Meanwhile, a Tasmanian whisky company is pursuing an aggressive growth strategy. From humble beginnings 30 years ago, the award-winning Lark Distilling Co (ASX:LRK) has, for the first time ever last financial year, been profitable. CHECK THIS FACT WITH INTERVIEW.

Now Lark is raising $53 million to acquire another local whisky producer, Pontville Distillery, and its 16-hectare estate in a $40M deal. Lark is planning to construct a million-litre distillery there.

As well as buying the Pontville business and its infrastructure, the deal brings in 483,000  litres of maturing whisky which will allow The House of Lark to fill a shortfall and start exporting a year ahead of schedule.

Lark Distilling Co’s SPP opens on Monday, in a bid to raise another $5 million.

The company has a market cap of $347.8 million and share trade opened at $5.54, above the $5 issue price.

The full interview with Lark’s MD Geoff Bainbridge will be uploaded here in The Market Herald Deal Room on Monday.

Also on the Apple Isle is Pure Foods Tasmania (ASX:PFT).

It’s building a suite of premium local plant-based foods to market throughout Australia and internationally.

The company has raised $5.3 million through unsecured convertible notes in order to be acquisition ready and to extend some of its existing product ranges.

Managing Director and CEO Michael Cooper said: “We’ve grown at 137% which is a record quarter for us. In September alone, we did our December numbers, so sales have been extremely strong.”  

Pure Foods Tasmania has a market cap of about $30.5 million and shares are trading at 52.5 at 2:45 pm AEDT on Friday. 

The Deal Room also explored capital raisings by Titomic Ltd (ASX:TTT), which has an SPP opening on Monday, as well as $3.1 million raised by Security Matters (ASX:SMX) and $4 million secured by both Kingwest Resources (ASX:KWR) and Cannon Resources (ASX:CNR).

For more information, just enter your companies of interest in the search tab here at The Market Herald.

There were seven IPOs on the ASX this week, mostly minerals companies. 

The Market Herald Deal Room explored a company selling software which allows business customers to manage all their global networks from just one screen.

ActivePort – ASX code ATV – listed on Wednesday… 

The first days of trade were low volume and below opening price.  CEO and MD Karim Kneejaim said the listing was an exciting milestone, but it was up to ActivePort to prove its worth.

“2:43 “I think it’s less about confusion around what we do and more around ok ‘now let’s see it we’d like to see where ActivePort can take this. SONIA: I’m sort of feeling there’s a little bit of hesitancy here to discuss the shareprice as it is right now? If it had shot up dramatically, that would have been interesting for the company, but then we would have been concerned about it dropping out, as a lot of IPOs do,” he said.

“I think what you are seeing is a low volume of trade, because I think our large institutional investors are sitting there going ‘yes, we’re in this for the long term’ so it’s not a reticence to discuss it’s more of case of, well, let’s get few months and a few quarters under our belt and I think the story will be quite different than the 24 hours.”3:35

ActivePort’s market cap is $45.79M and share trade opened at 18.5c today.

That’s the week in capital raising. For more information on these, or any other ASX-listed companies, head to the search tab on this website.

Have a great weekend. Thanks for your company. Bye for now.

More From The Market Online
Unith (ASX:UNT) - CEO, Idan Schmorak

Unith (ASX:UNT) to tap investors for fresh funds

Artificial intelligence (AI) specialist Unith (ASX:UNT) has called a trading halt in order to tap investors…
The Market Online Video

ASX trade starts Monday: Battery Age Minerals (ASX:BM8) targets rapid lithium exploration in Canada

Battery Age Minerals is due to start trading on the ASX on Monday, under the ticker…