The Cap Raise Crucible: Big books, broker options and mixed fortunes

The capital-raising conveyor belt kept rolling over the past fortnight, though one monster transaction did most of the heavy lifting.

More than $700 million was chased down across the raising universe, with L1 Global Long Short Fund’s $482.7 million entitlement offer accounting for the lion’s share.

Canaccord Genuity , E&P Capital and Taylor Collison landed the plum roles as joint lead arrangers and joint lead managers to the L1 Global offer, while Ord Minnett , Morgans , Shaw and Partners , CommSec , Bell Potter , MST Financial Services and NAB piled in as joint lead managers.

Further down the food chain, Euroz Hartleys , Petra Capital , GBA Capital , Yelverton Capital , Blue Ocean Equities , 62 Capital , CPS Capital , Discovery Capital , Prenzler and Peak Asset Management all found their way onto tickets.

Some brokers picked up healthy cash fees. Others scored millions of options. Meanwhile, AIC Mines and Kalamazoo Resources showed the broking fraternity wasn’t necessary, pulling in $70 million and $10 million respectively without a broker in sight.

As a corporate hound, getting your name on the tombstone is only half the test. The other is what happened afterwards and whether punters ended up drinking champagne or reaching for the Panadol.

By the October 8 close, results ranged from double-digit losses to spectacular wins, including one placement that briefly more than doubled the new money.

Raised: Up to $482.7 million Structure: Accelerated one-for-two non-renounceable entitlement offer plus shortfall Price: $1.76 Discount to previous close: 5.9 per cent Current price: $1.875 Share price versus offer: +6.5 per cent

L1 Global Long Short Fund provided the standout transaction, launching an accelerated one-for-two non-renounceable entitlement and shortfall offer to raise up to $482.7 million.

The $1.76 offer price represented a 5.9 per cent discount to the previous $1.87 close.

But the real eye-catcher was the broking bench. Canaccord, E&P Capital and Taylor Collison sat at the top as joint lead arrangers and joint lead managers, backed by another seven joint lead managers – that’s right – 10 firms around one capital-raising table. Umpire!

The offer was not underwritten and L1 Global wasn’t raising almost half a billion dollars to build a mine or buy an asset. It just wanted fresh ammunition for the fund’s strategy.

Its investment manager argued geopolitical tensions, higher bond yields and AI-driven volatility had thrown up opportunities across sectors, with plenty of stocks trading below its assessment of fair value.

In other words, L1 reckoned the market’s latest bout of turbulence had thrown up a golden opportunity and wanted another $482.7 million in its war chest to take a swing at it. Or perhaps the punters just fancied beefing up their short positions as a hedge against the stratospheric gains chalked up by the hyperscaler heavyweights.