Street Talk - Wildcat Resources launches $80m equity raise after...

Street Talk - Wildcat Resources launches $80m equity raise after MinRes’s arrival
West Australia’s Wildcat Resources was rounding up investors for an $80 million equity injection on Thursday morning, a little over a week after Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources picked up a 19.85 per cent stake in the company.
The lithium play had its brokers, Canaccord Genuity and Euroz Hartleys, offering shares at 76¢ apiece. Term sheets sent to fund managers said Wildcat had room to accept another $20 million in oversubscriptions, which would take the total raise to $100 million.The offer price was an 11.1 per cent discount to the last close, or 8.6 per cent lower than the 10-day volume weighted average price. It was structured as a single-tranche placement.Prospective investors were told Wildcat would use the proceeds to further its Tabba Tabba and Bolt Cutter lithium projects, including drilling and exploration, resources development, business development, permitting and studies. The placement would also fund exploration at other projects, general working capital and offer costs.The company was capitalised at $890 million on the ASX before the raise, but was down to just $8.7 million in cash at end of September.
Wildcat’s shares were halted at market open, pending the raise. The brokers were calling for bids into the placement by 5pm Thursday (Sydney time) to return the stock to trading at Friday’s opening bell.It comes after Wildcat’s largest shareholder, Global Advanced Metals, sold its entire stake to MinRes for $158.7 million. MinRes chairman James McClements owns private equity firm, Resource Capital Funds, and RCF-controlled Global Advanced Metals.The company’s Tabba Tabba project – and the heightened activity in lithium M&A – has seen it swell from an ASX tiddler with just $19 million market capitalisation in May to nearly $900 million