Macquarie’s sell-side analysts are tipping a $200 million equity...

Macquarie’s sell-side analysts are tipping a $200 million equity raise at listed rare earths play Hastings Technology Metals, after Hastings surprised the market with a strong lender line-up for its Yangibana project this week.Neodymium ingots. BloombergHastings’ Yangibana is a rare earths project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region and contains neodymium and praseodymium, which are used to make permanent magnets. It has been lining up funding to start major construction from October onwards.On Monday, Hastings said it had received conditional credit approval for up to $US130 million project finance from German bank KFW IPEX-Bank, adding to the $140 million loan from North Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) in February. It had also done soundings for another $US350 million in Nordic bonds.In a note sent to clients on Monday after the ASX announcement, Macquarie’s analysts said lenders’ interest in Yangibana was strong and would trim the need for equity to fund the project.“The interest from the debt markets was stronger than we had anticipated, with our base case only assuming an additional A$160m in debt over an above the NAIF facility, with the remaining shortfall covered by a A$200m equity raising,” the Macquarie analysts said.Barrenjoey and King Wood Mallesons are helping Hastings with the equity/strategic interests. KPMG Corporate Finance and Herbert Smith Freehills are advising on debt project finance.Hastings also said it had started early-stage discussions with potential downstream partners in Europe.