Even when a company’s boxed into a corner, fighting fires with regulators, blowing bank covenants and not even in full control of its main asset, Australia’s equity capital markets will step up at the right price!
For Star, that right price was $1.20 a share – an unbelievably low price given the stock only got as low at $1.62 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when investors feared there would be no more casinos.
So, The Star’s discounted placement and rights issue flew out the door on Thursday. Why? Because fund managers love cheap stock.
Who knows how The Star’s shares or business will trade, but fundies have taken a punt that things cannot be worse when the company’s got an extra $770 million cash on its balance sheet.
Pengana Capital’s been trying to poach E&P’s four private equity funds, three of which trade at distressed prices on the ASX. It’s understood Pengana’s lobbed a few offers, but been rebuffed or ignored.
South Australia’s FCT Combustion, a global champion in industrial burners used by miners and cement makers, has called in the advisers to find a new investor that could fuel management’s expansion plans.
Street Talk understands Aware portfolio manager Tim Riordan and associate PM Mike Teran finished up in late January, after running Aware’s $3.5 billion-odd small- and mid-cap portfolio together for the past three years.
