Sandstorm Gold Ltd (NYSEMKT:SAND) has announced the closing of its fundraiser that saw the company offer millions of new common shares to investors. The equity offering generated $57.5 million in gross proceeds. Investors showed strong appetite for the company’s shares that the underwriters in the offering fully exercised their option to cover overallotment.
The company’s fundraiser was dubbed bought deal financing. The company put more than 11.2 million common shares on offer as part of the fundraiser. But it allowed the underwriters to acquire additional shares to cover oversubscription. As such, the company ended up selling a total of more than 12.9 million shares of its common stock.
Each share was priced at $4.45 apiece, thus yielding $57.5 million in gross proceeds. It is not clear how much will go into commissions and expenses related to the offering. But the net proceeds are expected to be slightly lower than $57.5 million.
What’s the target with the money?
Sandstorm is planning to use a part of the proceeds from the bought deal financing to repay a portion of its revolver credit. The company will also use portion of the company for asset acquisitions, especially for acquisition of gold and other precious metals. The balance will be funneled to working capital.
Strong demand for safe-havens
Sandstorm is looking to increase its precious metals portfolio at a time when investors are showing strong appetite for gold and other safe-haven assets in the wake of Brexit vote. Uncertainty has gripped global economies following Britain’s shock decision to peel off from the European Union. The European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and People’s Bank of China are some of the monetary regulators that have hinted at plans to roll out more stimulus packages to spur their economies after the U.K. voted to leave the EU.
Such monetary easing measures as planned by central banks are favorable for gold trades given that the yellow metal is widely viewed as a safe store of value.
SAND’s financial
Sandstorm generated revenue of $13.4 million in 1Q2016, which was up from $12.5 million in the year-ago quarter and $9.9 million in the prior quarter. EPS was quoted as $0.10 in the latest quarter, up from $0.02 a year ago and significantly up from EPS loss of $0.20 in the prior quarter.