- Advanced X-ray tech company Micro-X (MX1) has fallen well short of its goal in a fully-underwritten entitlement offer
- The non-renounceable shares were offered at 14 cents each on a 1-for-5.6 basis, with a 71 per cent shortfall in take-up of the offer
- The offer raised a little over $1.8 million from shareholders — a far cry from the $6.25 million aim
- Despite a 20 per cent discount to the last closing price at the time of the offer, the company’s share price fell to the offer price — and below – within days of the successful completion of a $8.75 million placement – wiping out hopes of the entitlement offer really getting off the ground
- Regardless of the lack of interest, the company still has enough in the bank to fund its intended scale-up of production and marketing activities, and has a funding runway into 2022
- Micro-X has rebounded slightly today from its bottom-out price of 13.5 cents — gaining 3.7 per cent to sit at 14 cents per share by Monday’s close
Advanced X-ray tech company Micro-X (MX1) has fallen well short of its goal in a fully-underwritten entitlement offer.
Top-ups can’t fill offer
The company received applications for 12,874,298 new shares from 410 eligible shareholders, with 85 per cent of those applying for top-ups totalling 2,122,329 additional shares.
Overall, just 29 per cent of the shares on offer were taken up, aggregating a little over $1.8 million – a far cry from the original $6.25 million goal.
The non-renounceable shares were offered at 14 cents each on a 1-for-5.6 basis.
The shortfall of 31,772,213 shares not taken up in the offer will be allotted in consultation with the joint lead managers and underwriters, Bell Potter and Morgans, on the same terms as the entitlement offer.
The new shares from the offer, top-up and shortfall are expected to be issued on Wednesday, May 13.
Funding pathway
The entitlement offer had been issued along with a placement to sophisticated and professional investors, which together aimed to raise $15 million.
The placement was fully subscribed and raised $8.75 million, and included new investors for Micro-X.
The 14-cent price of the placement and entitlement offers represented a 20 per cent discount to the last closing price of Micro-X shares before the offer.
The company’s share price fell to the offer price — and below — within days of the successful completion of the placement — wiping out hopes of the entitlement offer really getting off the ground.
Still, the company — which specialises in micro and mobile X-ray imaging devices – must be scratching its head as to why it had so little interest given the current global need for its tech amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Either way, the company now has enough in the bank to fund the scale-up of production and marketing for its Nano device to meet the increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The extra funds can also be deployed to accelerate the regulatory approval and commercialisation of its Rover mobile military X-ray unit for field hospitals, as well as for general working capital, providing the company a funding runway into 2022.
Micro-X has rebounded slightly today from its bottom-out price of 13.5 cents — gaining 3.7 per cent to sit at 14 cents per share by Monday’s close.