Crucial Lonmin rights issue sees 71% take-up

Beleaguered platinum miner Lonmin reported a 71% take-up of its heavily-discounted $407m (£269m) right issue.

The company said on Friday that it had received acceptances in respect of 19bn new shares out of the 27bn it was selling.

The shares were priced at 1p each, which is a 94% discount to the closing price before the announcement, as the miner looked to press ahead with its debt restructuring and stay afloat amid declining platinum prices and rising costs.

In November, the company reported $2bn in operating losses for the year to the end of September compared with $255m a year ago. This included $1.8bn in asset impairments on the back of lower-than-expected production and prices.

The pre-tax loss for the full year widened to $2.2bn from $326m the previous year and net debt increased to $185m at the end of September from $29m in the same period in 2014.

The rights issue was underwritten by HSBC, JP Morgan Cazenove and Standard bank.

Shore Capital deemed the take-up "respectable”, but said the problem for Lonmin is that metal prices have generally fallen since it proposed its Business Plan.

“And perversely, Lonmin’s survival (for now) essentially cements the prospect of lower prices for the time being, we believe. Should strikes and/or operational issues and/or other adverse factors (e.g. electricity tariff hikes) come into play, Lonmin could quickly be in trouble again,” the brokerage said.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Richard Hatch said the rights issue suggests potential overhang.

“The three underwriters will now seek to find subscribers for the remaining 7.847bn shares at 1p by 14 December; after this point, any shares not placed will be taken up by the underwriters. We believe that this could act as an overhang for the shares, with more clarity coming on or after the 14th,” he said.

At 1000 GMT, Lonmin shares were down 7.7% to 0.95p.