Empress Royalty Corp. (CVE:EMPR) said it has closed its previously announced bought deal public offering raising around C$15.75 million, including the partial exercise of the over-allotment option.
Under the offering, Empress issued a total of 31,505,000 units at a price of C$0.50 per unit for gross proceeds of C$15,752,500. Each unit consisted of one common share in the company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share at a price of C$0.75 until March 25, 2023.
In a statement, Alexandra Woodyer Sherron, Empress Royalty CEO and president said: "We would like to thank our existing and new shareholders for their continued support of Empress. We are looking forward to deploying this capital, expanding our portfolio and bringing value to our shareholders."
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The offering was co-led by Red Cloud Securities and Canaccord Genuity, acting as co-lead underwriters and joint bookrunners, on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters including Mackie Research. The units were offered under a short form base shelf prospectus dated February 4, 2021, as supplemented by a prospectus supplement dated March 18, 2021, in all provinces of Canada except Quebec.
In connection with the offering, the underwriters received a cash commission of C$996,975 and were issued 854,550 broker warrants. Each broker warrant is exercisable to acquire one common share at an exercise price of C$0.50 until March 25, 2023.
In addition to the offering, the company also closed a non-brokered private placement which saw the issue of an additional 1.3 million units for gross proceeds of C$650,000. The private placement units have the same terms as the units sold in the offering.
The net proceeds from the private placement will be allocated to the company's cash reserve retained for future acquisitions, due diligence and expenditures and for general corporate purposes. The common shares, warrants and any common shares issued under the exercise of any warrants sold in the private placement are subject to a hold period which expires on July 26, 2021.
The company anticipates paying finder's fees in amounts consistent with market norms in respect of certain of the subscriptions in the private placement. The offering and the private placement remain subject to the final acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.
Empress is a new precious metals royalty and streaming company focused on the creation of unique financing solutions for mining companies. The company has a portfolio of 15 investments and is actively focused on finding industry partners with development and production stage projects who require additional non-dilutive capital.
It has strategic partnerships with Endeavour Financial in London, Terra Capital in Australia and Accendo Banco in Mexico which allow the company to not only access global investment opportunities but also bring unique mining finance expertise, deal structuring and access to capital markets.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com