Fisher & Paykel Appliances is expected to announce tomorrow it intends to raise around $180 million in new equity and Chinese appliance company Haier will take a 20 per cent stake in the company.

The whiteware maker asked to be put on a two-day trading halt yesterday amid speculation that it was close to finalising its capital raising plans and had found a cornerstone investor.

The Herald understands investment bank First NZ Capital was yesterday talking to key institutions about underwriting the capital raising, thought to be up to $200 million.

One source expected Haier to take around $40 million of that, with about $160 million needing to be underwritten by institutions before being offered to existing shareholders through a rights issue.

The Chinese appliance maker is thought to be taking a stake of slightly more than 20 per cent although it will have voting rights of only 20 per cent.

Market commentators believed anything less than $200 million would not be enough to recapitalise Fisher & Paykel, whose debt levels ballooned to $570 million at the end of March in the wake of a falling New Zealand dollar.

The rights issue price is expected to be 35c to 40c a share although Haier may pay more than that for its share to keep existing investors happy.

Fisher & Paykel last traded at 66c on Friday.

Market commentator Arthur Lim said if the cornerstone investor was Haier it could be good news for F&P.

"Having a big player like Haier could give Fisher & Paykel financial strength."

Lim said F&P could use the relationship to leverage off Haier's global marketing reach.

The potential for a successful capital raising had also greatly improved since Fisher & Paykel first signalled it back in February.

Lim said market sentiment had turned for the better and the highly controversial capital raising by Nuplex had also proven to be a success.

Forsyth Barr analyst Guy Hallwright said he was not sure why Fisher & Paykel had decided to go into a trading halt as news of a capital raising was not new.

He expected it to raise somewhere between $150 million and $200 million but was unsure whether it would raise the money in one lot or several.

Hallwright said he did not believe it was necessary for Fisher & Paykel to bring in a cornerstone shareholder.