Key points
- Shareholders subscribed for 150,622,473 common shares, over 75 per cent of the shares on offer, including 125,485,507 under the initial subscription and 25,136,966 under the additional subscription.
- MB Holding Company LLC acted as standby purchaser, buying the remaining 49,377,527 unsubscribed shares for a $2-million fee.
- The company now has 436,772,865 common shares outstanding, with MB Holding owning 28 per cent, Metalloinvest 20.75 per cent and Anglo American 5.95 per cent.
- Net proceeds will fund three key contracts for the Solwara 1 seafloor production system: tools from Soil Machine Dynamics, the subsea slurry lift pump from GE Hydril and the rigid riser system from General Marine Contractors.
Nautilus Minerals Inc. has received gross proceeds of $40-million before expenses as a result of the successful closing of its rights offering through the issuance of 200 million common shares at a subscription price of 20 cents per common share.
Under the rights offering, 125,485,507 common shares were issued under the initial subscription with 25,136,966 common shares issued under the additional subscription. In total 150,622,473 common shares were subscribed for under the rights offering representing over 75 per cent of the total shares on offer.
Mike Johnston, Nautilus’s chief executive officer, commented, “It is very encouraging to see such a high level of support for the company from its existing shareholders.”
As previously announced, one of the company’s major shareholders, MB Holding Company LLC, through a wholly owned subsidiary, agreed to act as a standby purchaser in respect of the rights offering and purchased the remaining 49,377,527 common shares that were not otherwise subscribed for under the offering, in consideration for a fee of $2-million.
The net proceeds from the offering will be used by the company to continue financing its three key contracts related to the seafloor production system. The key contracts include the build of the seafloor production tools by Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd., the supply of the subsea slurry lift pump by GE Hydril and the procurement of the rigid riser system by General Marine Contractors LLC. The company believes that continuing with these key contracts will ensure the company is in the best possible position to advance the Solwara 1 project following resolution of the dispute with the state of PNG. To that end, the company continues to meet with senior representatives of the state, including national executive council ministers, with a view to amicably resolving the dispute as soon as possible.
The total number of issued and outstanding shares of the company is now 436,772,865.
MB Holding Company LLC, directly and through its subsidiary Mawarid Offshore Mining Ltd., now owns 28 per cent of the company’s shares, Metalloinvest owns 20.75 per cent and Anglo American holds 5.95 per cent.
