Kenmare looks to raise €200m
The Dublin-based company which also published its annual results yesterday will place just under 1.5 billion new ordinary shares, at a price of 12p each, in Dublin and London, following shareholder approval which will be sought at an extraordinary general meeting at Dublin’s Westbury Hotel on March 29.
The move is set to be the second largest fundraising round ever embarked upon by an Irish company.
The Moma mine has around 150 years of reserves and is due to be expanded further by 2012, by which time it could produce enough material to meet about 10% of the world’s titanium demand.
Speaking yesterday, Kenmare’s managing director Michael Carvill said: “We’re excited about the opportunity to expand our capacity at Moma and to take advantage of the market supply deficit expected to develop by 2012.”
On the results side, Kenmare reported a pre-tax loss of $30.4m (€22.4m) for 2009, against a profit of $345,000 the previous year. Revenue came in at €26.7m. That turnaround was, says the company, down mainly to “the slower -than-planned ramp-up of Moma and the depressed feedstock market situation”, but Kenmare’s chairman Charles Carvill said that things have improved since the turn of the year.
“Production and market conditions, current and projected, are now healthier, providing encouraging indications of a significant improvement in operational and financial performance for the year ahead.
“We’re all looking forward to the successful completion of the fundraising and the commencement of the expansion project,” he added.
