21 May 2018

BluGlass raises AUD$9.2m in share placement and offers AUD$5m share purchase plan

© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.

BluGlass Ltd of Silverwater, Australia – which was spun off from the III-nitride department of Macquarie University in 2005 – has received commitments from institutional, professional and private investors to purchase 24,864,865 fully paid ordinary shares at AUD$0.37 per share to raise AUD$9.2m under a placement with Wilsons Corporate Finance Ltd and Stifel Nicolaus Europe Ltd acting as joint lead managers and bookrunners.

Issue of the placement shares will be made by BluGlass using its existing placement capacity under ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and, accordingly, shareholder approval is not required. Settlement of the placement is expected to occur on 24 May and the placement shares are expected to be allotted on 25 May.

“We are very pleased to see the significant cornerstone support from global institutional funds,” says managing director Giles Bourne. “These funds have invested alongside domestic institutional and retail investors.”

BluGlass will also undertake a share purchase plan (SPP) under which registered shareholders (as of 18 May) with addresses in Australia and New Zealand can subscribe for either AUD$2000, AUD$5000, AUD$7000, AUD$10,000 or AUD$15,000 worth of new fully paid ordinary shares at the same issue price (free of brokerage and transaction costs) to raise up to about AUD$5m. The share purchase plan offer opens on 22 May and is expected to close at 7pm (Sydney time) on 12 June (subject to extension of the timetable by BluGlass).

The issue price of AUD$0.37 per share under the placement and the share purchase plan represents an 8.6% discount to the closing share price on 16 May and an 11.4% discount to BluGlass’ 5-day volume-weighed average price (VWAP) ending on 16 May.

BluGlass is commercializing its proprietary low-temperature remote-plasma chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) process for manufacturing indium gallium nitride (InGaN)-based LEDs, power electronics and solar cells, offering advantages including higher performance and lower cost, it is claimed.

The funds raised under the placement and share purchase plan (after costs) are intended to be used to:

• acquire additional metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) equipment to build and demonstrate applications by retrofitting MOCVD equipment with RPCVD on commercial platforms;
• undertake a major facilities upgrade to expand existing infrastructure to assist in accelerating RPCVD development; and
• strengthen BluGlass’ balance sheet to exploit market opportunities and help to fund the planned increase in activity.

“Proceeds from the placement will enable BluGlass to expedite its technical and commercial goals with our collaborative partners and deliver commercial outcomes for our proprietary RPCVD technology,” says Bourne.

Tags: BluGlass RPCVD

Visit: www.bluglass.com.au