Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG) completes an entitlement offer raising $400 million
- Chemist Warehouse will list on the ASX by setting up shop inside the existing Sigma
- Sigma and Chemist Warehouse have had an operational relationship for a number of years
- The listing of Chemist Warehouse, despite not being a real IPO, is the hottest-watched new addition to the ASX
- Sigma shares last traded at 96.5 cents
Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG) has completed the retail end of its entitlement offer to raise a total of $400 million so Chemist Warehouse can list on the ASX.
Technically, Sigma is acquiring Chemist Warehouse, but people are far more interested in the latter over Sigma.
Worth noting is that at least one Morningstar analyst flagged an expectation the regulator will reject the Sigma-CW deal, that forecast was made as recently as December.
Retail contributed about $223 million, though, that “retail” component includes Sigma’s largest shareholder, HMC Capital.
Just over 4,000 applications for retail entitlements were lodged with Sigma for 111 million new shares at the 70-cent offer price. New shares will rank equally with existing fully paid ordinaries.
What about Chemist Warehouse?
In case you’ve forgotten what was the hottest ASX IPO news of late 2023, here’s a very boiled-down recap.
A lot of technicality and history aside, Chemist Warehouse will hit the Aussie bourse in 2024 by setting up shop inside already-listed Sigma and offering itself to investors that way.
In short, Chemist Warehouse is avoiding the IPO process from scratch and instead getting creative with finding digs facing public Australian investors.
New shares trade Monday; IPO hopes
New shares are expected to commence trading on the ASX next Monday.
When, exactly, Chemist Warehouse will set up shop inside Sigma wasn’t made immediately clear today.
However, the introduction of Chemist Warehouse to the ASX will, sans proper IPO aside, be taken with good favour. So far, only three companies are set to list in February – none of them household names.
Sigma shares last traded at 96.5 cents.
