Media Release 3 April
BOART LONGYEAR SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES BOOKBUILD:
FINAL PRICE SET AT A$1.85 PER SHARE
Boart Longyear Limited (“Boart Longyear”), the world’s leading integrated drilling services provider and products manufacturer for the global mining industry with a substantial presence in the environmental & infrastructure and energy drilling industries, today announced a final price per share for its initial public offer of A$1.85 following a successful bookbuild in which there was strong demand from both domestic and international institutions. The final price will be paid by both retail and institutional investors.
Institutions have been allocated approximately 75% of the shares available under the offer. Retail investors who have subscribed for shares under the general offer have been substantially scaled back due to the strong levels of demand.
Based on the final price of A$1.85 per share, Boart Longyear will have a market capitalisation of A$2,748 million.
Boart Longyear will commence trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (“ASX”), initially on a conditional and deferred settlement basis from 11.00 am (Sydney Time), Thursday, 5 April 2007, under the ASX code “BLY.” The Company expects normal trading of its shares to commence from Monday, 16 April 2007.
Boart Longyear Chief Executive Officer Paul Brunner said, “We are very pleased with the strong level of retail and institutional support that the initial public offer has received. We believe this reflects the Company’s solid business fundamentals and ongoing growth prospects. I look forward to welcoming our new investors to the Boart Longyear family.”
Boart Longyear will use the proceeds of the offer to:
- pay down a portion of the Company’s debt balance;
- fund redemption of securities held by vendors; and
- fund the costs of the offer.
Applicants under the offer have been allocated shares as follows:
- Broker firm offer: valid applications have been accepted in full, subject to the size of each broker’s overall firm allocation. Broker firm applicants should confirm their allocations with their adviser;
- Priority offer: valid applications have been accepted in full;
- General offer: valid applications under the general offer have been scaled back, with valid applicants allocated the first $2,000 worth of Shares applied for and 20% of their applications thereafter; and
- Institutional offer: the Joint Lead Managers, Macquarie Equity Capital Markets Limited, Goldman Sachs JBWere Pty Ltd and UBS AG, Australia Branch will advise institutional applicants of their allocations.
From 8.30am (Sydney Time) on Thursday 5 April 2007, retail applicants will be able to find out details of their allocations by calling the Boart Longyear Offer Information Line on 1800 781 633 or +61 2 8280 7488. However, any retail applicant who sells shares before receiving their initial statement of holding does so at their own risk, even if they have obtained details of their holding from the Boart Longyear Offer Information Line.
Holding statements are expected to be dispatched on Wednesday, 12 April 2007. All successful applicants under the retail offer will receive a refund of any application monies for any shares applied for in excess of their final allocations. Refund cheques are also expected to be dispatched on Wednesday, 12 April 2007.
Background:
Boart Longyear was originally two separate companies. Boart was established in 1936 as a DeBeers subsidiary developing industrial applications for waste diamonds, while Longyear began operations in 1890 and for more than 100 years has been a leading provider of drilling services and products to the global mining industry.
Longyear was acquired by Anglo American in 1974 and Boart was merged with Longyear in 1994. Boart Longyear was sold to Advent International, Bain Capital and senior management in July 2005 and a Macquarie Bank led consortium was introduced as an additional investor in 2006.
Since Boart Longyear’s separation from Anglo American, the management team has focused on increasing the Company’s position as the industry leader in the Minerals Drilling industry, providing drilling services for its range of blue chip clients and manufacturing a wide range of drilling and related mining products. Over the six months to 31 January 2007, Boart Longyear has made six significant strategic acquisitions. Four of the businesses acquired are based in Western Australia (North West Drilling, DrillCorp, Grimwood Davies and KWL) and two in the Americas (Prosonic and Connors).
Minerals related activities represent approximately 70% of Boart Longyear’s Drilling Services division’s forecast FY2007 revenue, with the remaining 30% expected to come from the Environmental & Infrastructure and Energy drilling industries. Boart Longyear is well positioned to benefit from strong commodities demand and production and exploration growth which are being driven by supply shortages and the continued strong demand for raw materials from the industrialisation and urbanisation of emerging economies, particularly China and India. Approximately 75% of Boart Longyear's mineral industry revenue is derived from the development and production stages of mining operations, which are less impacted by fluctuations in commodities prices than the exploratory stage. Boart Longyear’s increasing presence in the adjacent Environmental & Infrastructure and Energy drilling services industries provides further diversification to its earnings profile.
With established operations in key markets such as the United States, Australia, Africa and Canada and exciting new initiatives in Brazil, Russia and China, Boart Longyear is a truly global company which has a number of organic and acquisition growth opportunities available.
The Company’s operational head office is located in Salt Lake City, United States, with its corporate office in Sydney, Australia.
For investor enquiries please contact:
Alison Henriksen
Vice President, Investor Relations
Boart Longyear
T: +61 2 9293 2599
E: ahenriksen@boartlongyear.com
This announcement does not constitute an offer or invitation in any jurisdiction where, or to any person whom, such an offer or invitation would be unlawful. This announcement does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the US Securities Act of 1933 or an exemption from registration.
