Shares in Bellavista Resources Ltd (ASX: BVR) were surging higher on Wednesday after the company announced a significant capital raise at a discount.
This is unusual, as a company's share price tends to head south when a decent capital raise is announced, but the explanation might lie in news that came out earlier in the week.
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Deal flow enticing shareholders
Bellavista announced on Monday that it had struck an agreement with fellow gold company FireFly Metals Ltd (ASX: FFM) to acquire 70% of the Pickle Crow gold project in Ontario, Canada, and to exercise the option to increase that interest to 80% subject to some conditions.
The Pickle Crow project has an inferred mineral resource of 2.8 million ounces of gold at a grade of 7.2 grams of gold per tonne, the company said on Monday.
Bellavista added in its statement on Monday that it believed there was "immense exploration upside" at Pickle Crow and other landholdings in the Uchi and Wabigoon belts in Canada, and it would be kicking off an "aggressive" exploration campaign.
Firefly said in its release on Monday that it would be paid 60 million Bellavista shares and 50 million performance rights for the Pickle Crow project, with an aggregate value of $86.1 million.
The $1.5 billion company would then distribute these shares to its own shareholders by way of a pro-rata, in-specie distribution.
Well-funded for exploration
Back to the capital raise, Bellavista said it would have $32 million in cash after raising the new money at 75 cents per share, with the proceeds to be used to exercise the Pickle Crow earn-in and to fund exploration programs in Canada and at its Brumby project in Western Australia.
The money would be raised in two tranches, with $16 million of the new raise requiring shareholder approval.
Bellavista Managing Director Glenn Jardine said the capital raise was well-received.
We are extremely pleased with the level of support for the Company and the proposed acquisition of up to an 80% interest in the Pickle Crow Project and additional exploration tenure in Ontario, Canada from FireFly Metals, as shown by this highly successful capital raising. Bellavista will emerge well-funded to aggressively explore the Pickle Crow project (subject to completion of the Acquisition) which has seen limited exploration since 2023. We believe the project has significant exploration upside with the large, high grade gold resource remaining open along strike and down dip and we have ambitious growth plans with the right team in place to drive that growth.
Bellavista shares were 8.2% higher at 85.5 cents at about noon on Wednesday.
The company was valued at $80.4 million at the close of trade on Tuesday.
