Australia's largest steelmaker BlueScope Steel Ltd (Bluescope) has announced a comprehensive capital restructuring that will raise as much as AU$2.7 billion (US$1 billion) through an entitlement offer as well as a syndicated loan note facility.
A BlueScope statement said that the company was planning to sell up to AU$1.4 billion in a one-for-one stock sale to existing shareholders at AU$1.55 each. The sale will be open to existing shareholders from next week, while trading of the company's shares are presently halted.
The institutional offer has been underwritten to AU$825 million, while the retail offer of up to AU$588 million has not been underwritten. A total of up to about 911.7 million new ordinary shares are to be issued under the total offer, with about 521.4 million shares being offered under the institutional offer, and up to 390.2 million shares under the retail offer.
In addition, BlueScope has said that it also secured a new AU$1.3 billion syndicated loan, comprising of two tranches of AU$200 million and A$1.075 billion, maturing in more than two years and more than three years respectively.
BlueScope, which has a market valuation of AU$2.3 billion, will use the money to refinance AU$2.1 billion of existing debt.
The company also noted that consistent with its other actions to strengthen its balance sheet, it does not believe it appropriate to propose a final dividend for the year ending June 30, 2009.