Fotios gives Horseshoe $4.1m leg up
Peter Klinger, The West Australian
Updated February 22, 2012, 6:01 am
Fresh from overseeing the sale of a $30 million stake in sharemarket darling Northern Star Resources, Michael Fotios has agreed to pump $4.1 million into copper-gold explorer Horseshoe Metals.
The investment in Horseshoe, which is focused on the namesake historic mine not far from Sandfire Resources' DeGrussa copper gold find in the Murchison, is priced at 27.5¢ a share and will see Mr Fotios' Investmet emerge with a shareholding of up to 21 per cent. Investmet will also 15 million options. Horseshoe shares last traded at 28¢.
News of the Horseshoe investment coincided with confirmation that Investmet would sell much of its shareholding in Northern Star, one of WA's best-performing gold stocks, as part of a wider share register restructure.
As flagged by _WestBusiness _on Saturday, Investmet will cut its stake of about 20 per cent to appease institutional investors wanting a more conventional share register.
Northern Star said yesterday the sell-off would reduce Investmet's stake to about 10 per cent and Mr Fotios' interest to about 4 per cent.
About 40 million Northern Star shares were sold at 90¢ each yesterday for gross proceeds of $30.5 million. Investmet owned 65.5 million shares, according to Northern Star's last annual report. Investmet and Mr Fotios are yet to disclose their reduced shareholding.
Investmet, which has a history of backing explorers, bought into Northern Star in early 2009 at 1.2¢ a share.
The sales price was in line with the 90¢ placement price for 50 million new shares issued by Northern Star to UK investors yesterday.
It will raise $45 million and swell the cash coffers of Northern Star, which has ambitions to expand beyond its Paulsens mine in the Pilbara, to about $80 million.
Northern Star shares resumed trading to fall 11.5¢ to 97¢.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/wa/12974016/fotios-gives-horseshoe-4-1m-leg-up/
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