The offering was priced at a hefty discount – A$0.085 compared to A$0.125 on Wednesday's close – sending shares in Arafura skidding 20% on Thursday. Prior to the offer, the developer's market value was around A$98 million.
MELBOURNE (June 20): Commodities trading firm Noble Group is set to take a small stake in ambitious Australian rare earths developer Arafura, raising its exposure to strategic minerals critical to high-tech industries and electric vehicles.
In a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange on Thursday, Arafura said that Noble's rare earths subsidiary Talaxis would underwrite A$7.2 million ($6.8 million) of a A$23.2 million share offering. According to Reuters calculations, that would give Talaxis a stake in Arafura of around 8%.
