* To raise $260 mln
* Shares fall more than 4 pct
* Top shareholder to take up rights
JOHANNESBURG, March 8 (Reuters) – Murray Roberts
Holdings, South Africa’s second-largest builder, priced
a $261 million rights issue at a steep discount on Thursday as
it looks to cut debt and secure funding to ride out an
industry-wide slump.
MR said it plans to raise 2 billion rand ($261 million)
through the sale of 112.8 million shares at 18 rand each, a
35.09 percent discount to the company’s closing price on
Wednesday.
Under the terms of the offer, shareholders would be entitled
to buy 34 new shares for every hundred held.
Shares in MR fell more than 4 percent shortly after the
announcement, before recouping some of losses to trade 0.6
percent lower at 27.90 rand as of 1044 GMT.
“The sector has been under pressure over the past few years,
they need to offer a big discount for the guys to be able to
take it up,” Rigardt Maartens, a portfolio manager at PSG
Securities said.
MR, along with other construction companies in Africa’s
biggest economy, has been struggling after the end of the
building boom in the run up to the 2010 soccer World Cup.
The company’s top shareholder, the Public Investment
Corporation, has agreed to support the rights issue, which is
underwritten by JPMorgan Chase Co and Standard Bank
.
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