macquarie bank takes a stake, page-5

SMH:

Macquarie Bank invests in Southern Gold
September 26, 2007 - 11:44AM

Investment bank Macquarie Bank Ltd has become the first major institutional investor in junior explorer Southern Gold Ltd.

Macquarie, along with Southern Gold's largest shareholders, Citic Australia Pty Ltd and Talbot Group Holdings Pty Ltd, have taken up a placement in Southern Gold shares.

As a result, Citic and Talbot have increased their combined interest in Southern Gold to 16.5 per cent.

Macquarie will receive 2.5 million shares and Citic and Talbot 1.25 million shares each.

The precious and base metals explorer is issuing five million shares at 30 cents each to raise $1.5 million.

Southern Gold will have a total 79.36 million shares on issue.

The company is drilling several advanced gold and base metal exploration projects in Australia, and has identified gold mineralisation in Cambodia.

Southern Gold has a market capitalisation of $27.09 million. At 1120 AEST on Wednesday, its shares were trading four cents or 12.32 per cent higher at 36.5 cents.