King & Wood Mallesons has acted on an interesting new combined capital raising – Beach Energy’s $345 million non- renounceable entitlement offer and issue of convertible notes.
Beach is one of the Energy and Resources sector’s latest success stories with a steadily climbing share price and an appetite for expansion. The funds raised from this transaction will enable it to grow its oil and gas exploration and appraisal business completely self-funded.
The deal structure involved a fully underwritten one-for-eight pro-rata accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer, at $1.40 a share, to raise $195m with a parallel $150m offer of senior, unsecured convertible notes which are primarily being offered in Asian markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
King & Wood Mallesons acted for the Joint Bookrunners for the convertible notes offer, and Underwriters for the equity offer. The team was led by Partners John Sullivan and Shannon Finch. It included Partner Ken Astridge, Senior Associate Paul Mayson and Solicitors Laura Steinke and Daiwei Shi.
“This was an interesting combination of capital raising structures, with a rights offer and institutional convertible bond issue run simultaneously. This is something we haven’t seen in the market for some time. It allows the issuer to broaden and diversify its funding base, as the offers target different groups of investors” said partner Shannon Finch.
“This deal is also good news for corporate bond markets – it is the first Singapore listed convertible by an Australian issuer for some time, and it has been well received by offshore investors. These deals have a significant cross – border dimension and we are pleased to have been able to lend our strong track record in this area” said partner John Sullivan.
The deal is another example of King & Wood Mallesons’ work on high profile cross-border transactions in the Asian region and reflects the firm’s unrivalled capability in Asia.
Beach Energy is an ASX listed Oil and gas company focused on the Cooper Basin. It has an aggressive growth strategy and this transaction will support their aspirations to move into new markets such as Tanzania and Egypt.
Piper Alderman and Sidley Austin acted for Beach Energy. Linklaters advised the Joint Bookrunners on the offshore elements and Skadden Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom advised the Joint Bookrunners and Joint Underwriters on the US law aspects of the transaction.
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