Trilogy's placement, Business Bakery selldown 'significantly' oversubscribed, reach $50 mln target

Friday 17th June 2016

Trilogy International, whose shares have soared 326 percent in the past 12 months, says its share placement and the selldown by major shareholder The Business Bakery was "significantly oversubscribed" and the skincare and home fragrance company didn't need support from the underwriter.

Trilogy shares were unchanged at $4 when they resumed trading today, having been halted for the share sale at $3.70 apiece, a 7.5 percent discount. The Business Bakery raised $30 million selling 8.1 million shares and reducing its stake to about 36 percent from 48.6 percent. The company itself raised $20 million in a placement at the same price and plans to raise a further $5 million via a share purchase plan that opens today and closes on July 8.

"The capital raising was very well supported by a broad range of Australian and New Zealand investors, resulting in significant excess demand over the $50 million which we sought," said spokeswoman Sonya Fynmore. "As such, investors were scaled and the capital raising was allocated fully."

The Business Bakery expects to end up with "at least 30 percent" of Trilogy once the company has completed the purchase of a quarter stake in Chilean rosehip producer Forestal Casino for US$8 million in cash and shares. The capital raising would increase Trilogy's free float to about 70 percent of its stock, helping boost liquidity, Trilogy said yesterday.

Chief executive Angela Buglass says the $25 million raised will be used to repay debt, invest in long-term brand and market development initiatives and fund more acquisitions.

Last month Trilogy reported that full-year profit more than doubled on soaring sales of its skincare and home fragrance products and the contribution from cosmetics and fragrance distributor CS Company.

Trilogy funded the CS acquisition with bank debt and had drawn down on $34.8 million of its $55 million facility as at March 31. The company's finance costs rose to $1.8 million in the year from $391,000 in 2015.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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