Minter Ellison has acted for Campbell Brothers limited on its recent capital raising. Mallesons Stephen Jaques acted for the underwriters, J.P. Morgan and RBS Morgans.

The transaction involved a fully underwritten 1-for-6 renounceable rights issue to raise about $196.6 million. The raising was structured as a traditional style renounceable rights issue, with rights trading on the stock exchange. According to Minter Ellison lawyers, the structure was designed to ensure maximum value for shareholders regardless of whether they wished to take up their entitlement.

Key players:

The Minter Ellison team was led by Gary Goldman (pictured far right) and consultant Suzanne Sheridan.

The Mallesons team advised the underwriters on all legal aspects of the rights issue. The team was led by partner Shannon Finch (pictured right), and included Ada Ko and Jessica Hudson.

Commentary:

According to lead Mallesons Partner Shannon Finch, the structure of the raising is unusual in the current market.

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"The capital raising is a non-accelerated renounceable structure, under which rights can be traded on the ASX. The trend in recent years has been to use an accelerated timetable, and renounceable structures have tended to involve institutional bookbuilds to sell rights of shareholders that do not participate. This rights issue represents a return to a more traditional offer structure, although it still makes use of the new undocumented rights issue format," Finch said.

"The other interesting aspect of this announcement is that the company has indicated that the capital raising is being conducted to provide funding flexibility to pursue strategic opportunities, including the takeover bid announced by the company this morning for PearlStreet. It's a welcome sign of some activity in the M&A space," she added.

Company info:

The proposed bid comes just two days after the takeover target, PearlStreet, announced a $23 million recapitalisation proposal with Catalyst Private Equity.