The shares of Fastbrick Robotics Ltd (ASX: FBR) have surged 32% in early trade to 11.5 cents after the company behind the one-armed bricklaying robot announced it had successfully completed an $8 million capital raising through a strategic cornerstone investor placement.
Ethical fund manager Hunter Hall Investment Management Limited is the investor in question, paying 8.1 cents per share for a 17.2% stake in the company.
Fastbrick Robotics CEO Mike Pivac had this to say on the deal:
"We are delighted to have secured Hunter Hall as a cornerstone investor. Hunter Hall have a long term investment horizon, and have been supporting FBR through on-market buying, so we see them as an excellent strategic fit as a cornerstone investor. The capital raised in the Placement significantly de-risks FBR from a funding point of view, ensuring the Company is now fully funded into 2018, and allows us to focus on the delivery of the Hadrian X in 2017."
Although the capital raising was at a discount to the current price, investors don't appear to mind. With the company now fully funded until 2018, investors appear pleased that management can concentrate solely on disrupting the construction industry.
The company's Hadrian X is an exciting piece of technology that can lay 1,000 standard brick equivalents per hour. Whereas according to the National Bricklayers Association, the average Australian bricklayer is able to lay just 400 bricks per day.
By using Hadrian X the company estimates standard construction of a residential property would reduce by six to eight weeks. It's not hard to see why this could appeal to property developers such as Cedar Woods Properties Limited (ASX: CWP) and Lendlease Group (ASX: LLC).
As we have seen from Amazon Go this week, in the future it seems inevitable that simple tasks will become fully automated. Bricklaying could well be one of them.
Whilst it is still too early for investment in my opinion, I'll certainly watch on with interest over the next 12 months.
