The SPP shame file since 2007

ABC Learning: issued 12% of the company to the Singapore Government at $7.30 a share in May 2007, raising $401 million. No SPP for small shareholders thank goodness as the company has since collapsed. See announcement.

Adamus Resources: did a $3.5 million private placement to Straits Resources in June 2009 at a 15% discount to the prevailing market price without offering a similar deal for small shareholders. See announcement. This outfit is clearly a serial offender because in August 2009 they did a $40 million placement at 35c, a 12.5% discount to the then price of 40c, and once again refused to come through with an SPP for its retail investors. See announcement.

Ampella Mining: raised $4 million through a placement at 30c a share in June 2009 with no offer for retail investors. See announcement.

Antares Energy: announced an allotment of 20.5m new shares at a 7% premium to international funds on June 17, 2010, without doing a placement for ordinary shareholders.

Aquarius Platinum: raised $392 million through a placement of 23.14 million shares at $16.95 in April 2008, although it does have the excuse of also being listed in South Africa and London, which makes an SPP just for Australian investors more difficult. See announcement.

Atlas Iron: no share purchase plan offer for the little guys but raised $63m with 25m new shares on offer before merger with Aurox. See announcement.

Aura Energy: raised $1 million through a placement at 10c in June 2009 but no sign of any follow through SPP. See announcement.

Australian Infrastructure Fund: raised $44 million through a placement in May 2010 but no sign of any follow through SPP. See announcement.

Babcock & Brown: raised $220 million on March 27, 2008, through an emergency placement of 16.12 million new shares at $13.65 – a hefty 8.4% discount to the previous closing price. Failed to follow through with a similar offer to small shareholders. See announcement and listen to subsequent AGM debate.

BC Iron: on November 10, 2010, the company announced an $18.4 million placement at $2.30 per share. There was no follow through share purchase plan for retail investors.

Becton Property Group: raised $68 million in a placement on September 3 at $4.25 but no SPP. Shares have since crashed. See announcement.

Bradken resources: to raise $50 million through a institutional share placement offer to fund the acquisition of Canada's Almac Machine Works, without any offer for retail shareholders.

Coal of Africa: announced a placement and sougght shareholder approval at the 2010 AGM for the issue of 50m shares at 110p, but no sign of any SPP offer for retail investors.


Commonwealth Bank: no share purchase plan offer for the little guys on the same terms as the $2 billion private placement done at $38 a share with the big end of town in October 2008 to fund the BankWest acquisition. See announcement.

Cougar Energy: a serial offender. Latest placement was 70 million shares at 6c in April 2009 but there was also a 50 million share placement at 14c in May 2008 and a 30 million share placement at 7c in June 2007, plus a 42 million share placement at 2.25c in October 2006. It really is time this company had a share purchase plan for its 5000-plus small shareholders who have been neglected for too long.

Dyesol: raised $12 million in a placement at $1 in June 2010. Shares were offered at at 8.5% discount but only to domestic and international institutions.

Eastern Star Gas: completed a $50 million placement at 55c in March 2009 and still hasn't come through with an SPP. See announcement.

Fortescue Metals: placed 17.4% of the company with the Chinese Government at $2.48 a share raising $645 million in March 2009 but still hasn't offered the same deal to its loyal but unloved retail shareholders. See announcement.

Gunns: placed $50.4 million of stock with institutions on June 14, 2007, at $3.36, but nothing for small shareholders. See announcement.

iinet: placed $41 million worth of stock at $1.60 a share in May 2008 to the clients of Euroz to help fund the $80 million acquisition of Westnet but failed to follow through with an SPP. See announcement.

Jabiru Metals: raised $11.5 million in a discounted placement at 25c in June 2009 but no sign yet of a share purchase plan. See announcement.



Kairiki Energy: announced a $7 million placement in June 2009 but no follow through SPP. See announcement. Re-offended in early 2011 when it sought shareholder approval to place 116m shares at 3c but didn't follow up with an SPP.

Karoon Gas: raised $51 million in a placement at $3.45 to institutions on November 16, 2007, but no share purchase plan. See announcement.

Kimberley Metals: did a placement of 20.7 million shares to Chinese investor Henan Yuguang in mid 2010 which required shareholder approval, but no follow through SPP for retail investors.

Linc Energy: issued 37 million shares to institutions and Marubeni Coal at 76c in October 2007 but failed to offer small shareholders an SPP despite a subsequent share price surge to north of $1. See announcement.

MEO Australia: completed a $27 million institutional placement at the knockdown price of 45c, an 18% discount to the previous closing price of 54.5c, in November 2009 and claimed it was "heavily over-subscribed". Earlier suggestions of a share purchase plan to pacify retail investors were then dropped, with the company declaring "the funds raised from the placement have satisfied immediate capital requirements".

Mineral Deposits: did a capital raising to complete the Sabodala Gold Project at a discounted rate of 77c but failed to offer an SPP to small investors. See announcement.

Paladin Resources: did a $430 million placement at $4.60 a share in September 2009 but failed to come up with any form of retail offer.

Poseidon Nickel: had no less than three resolutions approving previous share issues at the 2010 AGM but despite being placement trigger-happy this Twiggy Forrest outfit is still yet to do an SPP.

Primary Healthcare: raised $184.5 million issuing 15.5 million new shares to institutions at $11.90 a pop on November 9, 2007. No SPP and stock is now much lower after a $1 billion rights issue. See announcement.

QBE Insurance: raised $406 million at $32.48 a pop in a placement on February 28, 2007, but offered nothing to small shareholders. See announcement.

Santos: announced a $500 million placement at $12.55 on December 17, 2010, but then failed to follow through with a comparable SPP to its 111,000 retail shareholders as the lucky insiders enjoyed instant paper profits of $40 million.

Saracen Minerals: raised $35 million in a placement at 38c to institutions in mid 2010 but failed to follow through with an SPP.

Skilled Engineering: completed a $75 million placement on November 27, 2007, involving 14.4 million shares at $5.20 but failed to follow through with an SPP. See announcement.

Southern Gold: $1.6 million placement at 10c backed by major billionaire shareholder Ken Talbot announced in June 2009 but no SPP. See announcement.

Sun Resources: raised $5 million through a placement at a heavily discounted 5c a share in June 2009 through Hartleys but failed to offer same detail to retail investors. See announcement.


Transpacific Industries: Raised $403 million on June 8, 2007, at $13 a share but never offered small shareholders the same deal. See announcement.

Ten Network: raised $138 million through an institutional placement in August 2009 at $1.15 a share, but no sign yet of an SPP. See announcement.

West Australian Metals: announced a $10 million heavily discounted placement to a foreign cornerstone investor in June 2009 but no sign of any equivalent deal for its retail investors.

Western Areas: announced a placement at $35 million placement at $5.24 a share in May 2009 but will haven't follow through with a similar deal for retail investors through an SPP.


Check out all the Mayne Report business lists here. Go here to see the full comprehensive list of lists we've created documenting the dominance of foreign investors in Australia and our relative poor performance on the international business stage.

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