6 June 2012

5N Plus completes $40m equity financing

5N Plus Inc of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a producer of specialty metal and chemical products, has completed its ‘bought deal’ public offering and concurrent private placement (announced on 16 May) of an aggregate of 12,903,613 units at a price of $3.10 per unit, for total gross proceeds of $40m. Each of the units consists of one common share and one-half of a common share purchase warrant. Each full warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $5 for 24 months. The warrants are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol ‘VNP.WT’ and are now trading.

5N Plus focuses on specialty high-purity metals such as tellurium, cadmium, selenium, germanium, indium and antimony and also produces related II-VI semiconducting compounds such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), cadmium sulphide (CdS) and indium antimonide (InSb) as precursors for the growth of crystals for electronic applications, including solar photovoltaic, radiation detector and infrared markets. In addition, in April 2011, 5N Plus acquired MCP Group SA of Tilly, Belgium, a producer and distributor of bismuth and bismuth chemicals (with a 50% global market share) as well as other specialty metals (including gallium, indium, selenium and tellurium).

In the ‘bought deal’ public offering, 5N Plus issued and sold 6,452,000 units (for gross proceeds of $20m) to a syndicate of underwriters led by National Bank Financial Inc and including GMP Securities L.P., TD Securities Inc, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc, CIBC World Markets Inc, Cormark Securities Inc, M Partners Inc, NCP Northland Capital Partners Inc, Stonecap Securities Inc and Versant Partners Inc. The offering was made by way of a short-form prospectus dated 30 May filed with the securities commissions of each of the provinces of Canada.

In the concurrent private placement, 5N Plus issued and sold a further 6,451,613 units to Investissement Québec for gross proceeds of $20m. The common shares and warrants issued to Investissement Québec are subject to restrictions on resale for four months under applicable securities legislation.

5N Plus aims to use the net proceeds from the ‘bought-deal’ public offering and concurrent private placement to reduce indebtedness incurred under its revolving credit facility with a syndicate of financial institutions.

Last quarter 5N Plus incurred impairment charges of $45.6m, resulting mainly from the “current turmoil” in the solar market and the corresponding impact on the selling price of solar-related products and the value of fixed assets used to manufacture or develop such products, says the firm. Specifically, the charges included total write-offs of fixed and intangible assets amounting to $12.2m and total inventory write-downs of $33.4m.

Following the closing of the public offering and concurrent private placement, there are 83.9 million common shares of 5N Plus issued and outstanding.

See related items:

5N Plus announces $40m in equity financing

5N Plus’ revenue grows 8.5% in Q1

Tags: 5N Plus

Visit: www.5nplus.com