Fletcher Building raises $132 million in retail entitlement offer

Fletcher Building said it completed the retail component of its one-for-4.46 pro-rata entitlement offer.

Fletcher Building said it completed the retail component of its one-for-4.46 pro-rata entitlement offer, raising about $132 million and leaving a shortfall of about $97m to be made up from the retail shortfall bookbuild.

The bookbuild will ensure Fletcher gets to its $750m equity raising target, having already completed the institutional leg of the offer last month.

Eligible retail shareholders took up about 58 per cent of their entitlements. The capital raising was at $4.80, a deep discount to the trading price of the shares, with the institutional bookbuild at $6.15 apiece. The results of the retail shortfall bookbuild will be announced tomorrow.

Fletcher stock rose about 3 per cent to $6.56 today.

The company also said it has agreed revised terms with holders of its notes in the US Private Placement market, having been forced to seek a waiver when it breached the terms of the debt.

There would be no change to the maturities or the underlying margin payable on the notes "other than the 1.25 per cent additional margin outlined above which will cease to be payable no later than 30 June 2019," Fletcher said. The same margin applies to its bank facility.

Fletcher's syndicated facility agreement was trimmed to $925m from $1.27 billion as a result of the equity raising, which netted $725m after costs. With the conclusion of lender negotiations, Fletcher has cancelled a $500 million standby facility it had put in place.

Following this repayment and based on the company's March 31 financial position, its gross borrowings will be $1.79b and total available debt facilities will be $2.7b, it said.