Sometimes, it just isn't worth doing an SPP for a company as it...

Sometimes, it just isn't worth doing an SPP for a company as it is often the most expensive capital that is raised in a CR due the additional costs/administration (this was explained to me by CFO in a previous company I worked which undertook a number of CRs).

Need to look at the registry to see how many individual holders there are and their holdings to understand likelihood of take up of full $15K.

But in general, agree with your "fairness" angle. Its often these mid-caps that will leave their minority retail holders behind in a CR. They generally don't "need" them any more once the big boys are interested in raising money. The smaller caps will often still scrounge to get something out of their retail holders and the big caps don't want all the negative publicity and shareholder associations creating a fuss.

My cynical observations also tells me the existing shareholders got a free SP pump to get the CR out at $1.60. A huge premium on SP from 3 months ago (and quite a pump in the last month as I assume there were lots of analyst reports upgrades from the CR underwriters) . That's all part of the "package" they provide. And yes, their soph clients will get a free hit of 5-10% vs SP for doing business with them. Some will dump first chance they get (just like many retail holders do when they know they have cheaper SPP price to re-purchase).

I see it all as part of the puppetry of the ASX. It's a little like the rugby league scrums, they are meant to be some kind of contest, but it only is ever won by the team feeding the ball in. That's what happens when you feed into the second row of the scrum.