Vatukoula Gold Mines (LON:VGM) attracted plenty of the attention on Monday as it secured the all-important funding that the market has been waiting for.
The Fijian gold miner revealed it has tied up £26mln (US$40mln) in funding from its largest shareholder, Zhongrun International Mining.
The agreement will see the Chinese investor put up two tranches of around £13mln each that will go towards the company’s capital expenditure programme for the coming fiscal year.
The first tranche will be through the issue of just under 189mln new Vatukoula shares at 6.89p each, while the second will come through its subscription for US$20mln of secured loan notes.
The company claims to have received “irrevocable undertakings” from around 51% of its shareholders to vote in favour of the equity funding.
Zhongrun currently holds 37.8mln Vatukoula shares but will now own more than 226mln, giving it about 66% ownership.
“We are delighted to have secured the funding to develop the Vatukoula gold mine to its full potential,” said chief executive officer David Paxton.
“The funding has come from our largest shareholder, which demonstrates the continued confidence they have in the robustness of the Vatukoula gold mine.
“This agreement provides financing support on competitive terms in line with recent financings.”
The debt funding is conditional on the completion of the equity funding and the loan notes will carry an interest rate of 13% a year for six years. During the first three years of this period, Vatukoula will not make any interest repayments.
The news saw the shares rocket 60% higher at one point. They settled at lunch at around 10p each.
The market also welcomed Sirius Minerals’ (LON:SXX) fundraising as the potash miner secured a £25mln convertible security financing deal with a New York based institutional investor.
The company said the financing will be used for general corporate purposes and adds to existing cash of £8.5mln, providing funding for at least 12 months to cover the necessary work to secure approvals for the York potash project and other initiatives, including global crop trials that Sirius says will continue to demonstrate the unique value of polyhalite.
The shares, which have been under pressure of late, climbed 5% to 13.6p each.
Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA) also flourished on AIM as the second horizontal well on its Bone Spring play in New Mexico impressed.
The Caza Ridge 14 State No.4H has been flowing for the past few days after being fracked and rates have remained steady.
The peak daily rate was 1,004 barrels (bbls) of oil and 1.3 million cubic feet of natural gas, which equates to 1,221bbls of oil equivalent.
Caza has a 58.75% working interest, which roughly equates to a 44.8% net revenue interest in the well.
Ladbrokes (LON:LAD) and Moneysupermarket.com (LON:MONY) shares foundered on Monday as the duo found themselves on the receiving end of downgrades from JPMorgan.
The broker slashed the bookmaker to ‘underweight’, while the online price comparison specialist now only merits a ‘neutral’ stance from JPM.
Recent results from the companies failed to persuade analysts that they are worthy investments.
While JPM cut Ladbrokes’ target price by 25p to 175p a share, Moneysupermarket.com lost 10p of JPM’s goal for the shares.
The broker now thinks MONY’s price will stand at just 202p next year as near-term uncertainty will weigh on its growth.