spp, page-28

Thank you intheblack08 for your post. It seems like I gave the Company a bit too much credit.
It raises a few obvious questions:
1. Why does a $2bn market cap company bother with a capital raising aiming to get $15m - $20m?
2. Why did they make the announcement on Friday 25 Sept saying they were "delighted" when they knew that 7000 retail investors had bought 30 odd shares each the previous day obviously to particiapte in the SPP? Making that announcement before open on Friday encouraged more buyers to buy in to participate. At that time they could have easily seen that the number of holders (7000 plus 50% of existing 2400) was sufficient to raise the $100m. If they had said they only want to raise up to $100m then they should have brought forward the books close date or disclosed.
3. If that announcement was to assure the market that they were happy with that situation and they do scale back applications for holders of 30 odd shares then there is a good argument that they misled the market. At a minimum by not disclosing the amount they intend to raise, they are not keeping the market informed of information that is material to the decision of investors to buy.
4. The only possible reason I can come up with for encouraging new investors to buy in on Friday 25 Sept (other than to raise capital) would be to raise the number of shareholders dramatically. An obvious benefit of this is a takeover defence mechanism. ie it is much more difficult to get a scheme of arrangement passed by 75% of holders when there are 17400 compared with when there is 2400.