Shares in Xstrata tumbled 9% Wednesday as the Swiss mining group prepared to launch a large equity fundraising which could be as much as $5bn and come as early as Thursday. UK companies have been lining up to tap shareholders for cash over the past week to bolster balance sheets strained by the downturn and to offset debt markets drying up. Also, Cookson, the FTSE 250 engineering group, will on Thursday announce a deeply discounted rights issue aimed at raising more than £200m. The highly dilutive offer is aimed at heading off the growing risk of a breach of banking covenants amid bleak prospects for global steelmaking.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 5:53 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with Cookson, xstrata. Edit this entry.