Heartland completes $40M capital raising as share purchase plan closes oversubscribed

Monday 13th March 2017

Heartland Bank has completed $40 million of capital raising after its discounted share purchase plan closed more than three times oversubscribed.

The lender raised $20 million selling shares to existing investors at $1.46 apiece, saying the offer would be scaled back because it received applications for $62 million of shares. That adds to $20 million it raised via a placement to institutional investors at the same price in December. The equity capital would help Heartland meet its requirement to hold capital equal to 10.5 percent of its risk-weighted assets.

The company had planned to raise $10 million in the SPP but doubled the size of the offer last month, while reporting a 14 percent increase in first-half profit to $29 million and flagging the development of digital platforms for origination across a number of its products. Emerging technology for digital platforms meant Heartland could "reduce the cost of loan origination through the use of highly predictive credit tools."

So far it has launched platforms for small business loans, livestock loans and residential mortgages, it said last month.

Heartland shares last traded at $1.60 and have climbed about 30 percent in the past 12 months, more than three times the gains of the S&P/NZX 50 Index.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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