A better performance by Transfield Services shares yesterday; the closed up more than 9% after that 60% slump on Monday after they came out of a long trading halt.
That halt had lasted three weeks while the company negotiated with banks and shareholders to get a fund raising away.
Monday's 64% saw the price close at $1.245, which matched the $1.25 a share offer made to small investors to raise a $102 million.
This was in addition to the $204 million raised from institutional investors at the same price during the trading halt.
Yesterday the shares rose 9.2% to $1.36. That 11.5 cent fall came on a day when the market was sold off on fears the global economic slump would be deeper than expected.
The 1% cut in interest rates didn't help sentiment yesterday either with its suggestion that our economy will worsen in 2009
Under the new retail share issue, TSE shareholders will be offered one new share for each existing share at $1.25.
The company claimed the institutional placement and offer "significantly enhances."
In addition to the capital raising, Transfield said it had refinanced its Australian dollar debt facility, with the establishment of a new $US367 million ($A561.72 million) debt facility.
The move reduces the effect of the exchange rate on Transfield's debt compliance, and extends debt maturities to January 2012.
Chairman Tony Shepherd said the two measures helped deliver on a commitment made to shareholders to improve the company's balance sheet.
"The institutional equity raising, together with the debt restructuring initiatives, establish a strong capital position to promote sustainable organic growth from the delivery of essential asset and project management services," he said in a statement.
The raising brought conflicting views from local brokers yesterday.
JP Morgan asked in a client note: "What to do from here?"
"It's been a rocky ride for existing shareholders, but we believe there is little to be gained from selling at current levels given the stock is trading at 3.8x FY10E. We can also identify clear upside to our average valuation of $3.78. But there are at least a few impediments that we see which may prevent the stock from trading up to this level in the foreseeable future.
"Not least of all is ongoing downside earnings risk in TSE's North American and NZ operations.
"We also suspect that an increasing number of TSE clients seeking to defer/delay packages of work may crimp near term earnings growth.
"On top of this, investors need to grapple with management instability in particular, uncertainty around CEO Peter Watson's successor and the future of Chairman Tony Shepherd post the sell-down of the majority of his TSE holdings."
UBS took a slightly more positive view:
"TSE has announced full details of the $204m equity raising and debt restructuring
"There are now no major refinancing requirements until January 2012. As flagged in the initial announcement on Friday there is a follow on retail issue for up to $102m at $1.25.
"The group also noted that it expects the payout ratio to be closer to 50% than has previously been the case.
"It seems to us that while there is considerable uncertainty regarding the MD and board the balance sheet is in a sound condition and the business is performing reasonably well.
"The company noted that Timec, which had a very poor first quarter, had a record order book for the second half."
TSE Price at posting:
$1.36 Sentiment: ST Buy Disclosure: Held
