Shares in FBR Ltd (ASX: FBR) went 14% higher on Friday following the robotic technology company's announcement of a major investment from a fellow ASX-listed business.
In a statement to the ASX, FBR said it has received "a firm commitment from a wholly owned subsidiary of existing strategic investor Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW)" to buy $1.9 million in shares via a placement.
FBR said the placement would raise $1,929,628.40 via 107,201,578 shares at a price of 1.8 cents per share.
The FBR share price closed the session on Friday at 2.3 cents, up 9.52% for the day. In earlier trading, it reached an intraday high of 2.4 cents, representing a 14.3% bounce on its previous closing price.
Why is this micro-cap ASX share raising funds?
On 17 June, FBR announced to the ASX the completion of a $4 million capital raise via a placement of 222,222,222 shares.
FBR offered the placement at the same price to existing and new institutional and sophisticated investors.
FBR said the placement was oversubscribed. Those shares began trading on the ASX on 24 June.
At the time, the placement price represented a 10% discount to the last closing price of FBR shares.
Brickworks arguably got a better deal because by the time they bought, even though it was at the same price, they got a 14% discount on the last closing FBR share price.
The new shares in both placements will rank equally with existing fully paid ordinary shares of FBR on the ASX.
In its statement to the ASX, FBR said:
The [Brickworks] placement was managed by FBR … using FBR's full remaining placement capacity as at 24 June 2022, without Shareholder approval.
The funds will be used for working capital and commissioning of the next-generation Hadrian X®, as outlined in the latest corporate presentation.
The new shares purchased by Brickworks will commence trading on the ASX on 13 July.
Why is Brickworks buying FBR shares?
The placement will give Brickworks a 4.93% stake in FBR — just under the 'substantial shareholder' level of 5%.
With no statement out of Brickworks today, we can only guess as to the reasons for the purchase.
But the products that FBR makes give us a clue as to why Brickworks wants to be a stakeholder.
Brickworks is Australia's largest brick producer. One of FBR's products is a bricklaying robot. It's called Hadrian X and is powered by FBR's core Dynamic Stabilisation Technology (DST).
According to FBR, Hadrian X "builds structural walls faster, safer, more accurately and with less wastage than traditional manual methods".
Brickworks isn't just a brick company either. It's got investment savvy and owns some other assets that contribute to its profits.
This includes a 21% stake in diversified investment group Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Ltd (ASX: SOL) which is worth $2.576 billion as at 31 January 2022, according to Brickworks's FY22 half-year report.
FBR has a market capitalisation of $56.1 million.
