Hastings Technology Metals Limited (ASX: HAS) today announced the launch of a fully underwritten institutional placement of 301.1 million new fully paid ordinary shares to raise A$57.2 million.
HIGHLIGHTS:
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Hastings to undertake a fully underwritten placement to raise $57.2 million at an offer price of $0.19 per share.
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Proceeds from the Placement will be applied to the world-class Yangibana Rare Earths Project to fund:
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Procurement of long-lead item equipment;
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Front-end engineering plant design;
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Mine site works – camp installation, access road construction, civil plant base earthworks, water bore and pipeline installation, IT backbone tower installation; and
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Working capital.
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Upon settlement of the Placement, Hastings will have a cash balance (before costs of the Placement) of $76.4 million.
Placement
The Placement will comprise the issue of approximately 301.1 million New Shares and will be conducted at an offer price of A$0.19 per New Share, which represents:
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A 20.8% discount to the last close price on 17 February 2021 of $0.24; and
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A 9.9% discount to the five-day volume weighted average price of $0.211.
Each New Share issued under the Placement will rank pari passu with existing shares on issue. The new shares will be issued under the Company’s existing placement capacity under ASX LR 7.1 for 180,646,814 shares and ASX LR 7.1A for 120,431,209 shares. For the purposes of LR7.1A the 15-day VWAP is $0.218.
Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited (Canaccord) is acting as Lead Manager and Underwriter to the Placement on the terms and conditions of an underwriting agreement with the Company. The Appendix 3B which follows this announcement includes a summary of the terms of the underwriting agreement with respect to fees payable to Canaccord and termination events.
Settlement of the New Shares issued under the Placement is expected to occur on Friday, 26 February 2021, with allotment scheduled for Monday, 1 March 2021.
Further Placement
The Company reserves the right to undertake a second-tranche placement to accommodate sophisticated and institutional investors who were unable to participate in the Placement (Tranche Two Placement).
The Tranche Two Placement will be undertaken at the same Offer Price as the Placement, is capped at $15m, is not underwritten and is subject to Hastings Shareholder approval to be sought at an upcoming Extraordinary General Meeting. Details of this will be announced in due course.
Use of Funds
Funds raised from the Placement and the Tranche Two Placement will be used to fund the advance of Hastings’ world-class Yangibana Rare Earths Project (Yangibana) in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Principally, funds will be used for:
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Procurement of long-lead item equipment;
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Front-end engineering plant design;
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Mine site works – camp installation, access road construction, civil plant base earthworks, water bore and pipeline installation, IT backbone tower installation; and
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Working capital.
Hastings Technology Metals’ Executive Chairman, Charles Lew, commented:
“Hastings is making significant progress advancing our world-class Yangibana rare earths project at a time when global demand for neodymium and praseodymium is rising rapidly. Yangibana’s geology includes world-class levels of neodymium and praseodymium, two of the vital components needed for the clean energy revolution.
“The underwriting of this placement by Canaccord Genuity demonstrates the high level of confidence shown by the capital markets in our Yangibana Project. We welcome the opportunity to introduce new investors, both internationally and domestically to our share register.
“We delivered substantial exploration success at Yangibana in 2020, which we expect to convert into an upgrade to the project’s Mineral Resource and mine life later this quarter. Our strategy to decouple the beneficiation and hydrometallurgical plants has resulted in significant capex savings and comes with a number of other benefits for the project’s long term development strategy.”
