CBA inks share placement agreement
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has entered into a share placement agreement with Merrill Lynch International (Australia) to raise up to $750 million in new capital.
CBA will issues shares to the investment bank to raise the capital, the proceeds of which CBA intends to use to redeem its PERLS II securities in March next year.
In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, CBA Group chief financial officer David Craig said “upfront financing of the PERLS II exchange provides a simple and efficient redemption process for our PERLS II investor”.
“Given uncertain equity market conditions, we consider it prudent to do this now,” he said.
The new shares will be issued before the end of January 2009, the number and price of which will be determined based on the daily volume weighted average prices of CBA shares over a period of up to 10 days (the pricing period). The bank may adjust the size of the placement or reduce the length of the pricing period depending on market conditions.
CBA will be offering all shareholders the opportunity to participate in a share purchase plan, the details of which are to be finalised in February next year.
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