Long wait for Noventa open offer almost over

Tantalum miner Noventa said it is close to finalising details of its much-delayed open offer, and has also secured a bridging loan to tide it over until its fund raising exercise is complete.

Having originally announced details of the open offer back on August 19th as part of a $30.36m fund raising exercise, the company was not being hyperbolic when it said that the process of finalising the offer and all the necessary regulatory approvals has taken longer than the board had originally anticipated, but the company assured that the process is now almost complete. As such, the open offer is expected to be launched in late January or early February 2012.

Shareholders will get the opportunity to subscribe to the open offer of 17.5m new shares at a price of 25p per share.

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The underwriter of the open offer, Richmond Partners Masters, has agreed to provide Noventa with a $6.8m non-interest bearing bridging loan. The loan will need to be paid back when the open offer completes, or by the end of the year, whichever comes sooner.

In return for the provision of the loan, Noventa has agreed to grant Richmond 1.75m warrants to subscribe for new ordinary shares at a price of 38.853 cents each. These warrants will be capable of exercise until 31 December 2014.

Shares in Noventa edged up a halfpenny to 16.25p on the morning of the announcement.

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