Tiger completes mining finance, announces raising

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper cathode producer Tiger Resources has completed the final terms of a $162.5-million finance facility with Taurus Mining Finance Fund and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and has announced a capital raising of up to $25-million.

In October this year, Tiger flagged the $162.5-million finance facility, which would see Taurus provide $122-million of the funding and the IFC the balance.

The facility would refinance Tiger’s existing debt facilities with Taurus and Gerald Metals, and provide the company with the required expansion capital for its debottlenecking project at the Kipoi copper project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which would increase plant capacity from 25 000 t/y to 32 500 t/y of copper cathode.

The facility would have a 99-month term to the end of January 2024, with an interest-only period to January 2017. It was repayable at any time without financial penalty.

The drawdown of the facility was subject to Tiger raising a minimum of $10-million in additional equity capital to contribute towards the expansion at Kipoi.

This additional equity would be raised through a combination of a share placement to shareholder RCF and an accelerated, non-renounceable entitlement offer.

Tiger told shareholders on Wednesday that some 125-million new fully paid ordinary shares would be placed with RCF at an issue price of 6.65c each, to raise some $6-million in capital.

The placement price represented a 16.7% premium to Tiger’s closing price on December 15.

In addition, the company would launch a four-for-nine accelerated, non-renounceable entitlement offer, priced at 4.7c a share, to raise a further $19-million.

RCF has committed to subscribe for up to $4-million worth of shares under the entitlement offer, brining its total investment in the equity raising to $10-million.

In addition, IFC has also committed to acquire the shortfall entitlements, up to a value of $5-million, subject to obtaining a minimum interest of 5% of the company’s share capital, post the equity capital raising.