Nautilus shelves plans to sell shares

NAUTILUS Minerals, which plans to mine copper from the ocean floor in its  Solwara-1 project in the Bismarck Sea, said last Friday that it had shelved plans to raise C$150 million in an equity offering due to adverse market conditions, The National reports

Reuters news last Friday said the Toronto-listed company said it made the decision despite a positive response from investors when it

was marketing the proposed offering.

Nautilus announced the offering on May 24.

It said at the time it would use the proceeds to develop its Solwara-1 project, off the coast of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean.

 The offering was to be conducted by a syndicate of underwriters led by TD Securities and Credit Suisse.

Some of the cash from the offering had also been earmarked to fund the production support vessel required at Solwara-1.

“While it is disappointing to withdraw the capital raising, we did not believe shareholders would be best served by issuing stock in the current market conditions,” chief executive steve Rogers said in a statement.

“We have a strong cash position and a range of alternative options available to access capital in the future,” Rogers said.

“Nautilus continues to advance its first project at Solwara-1.”

Nautilus is expected to release its first-quarter financial results early next week.

 The company said it had a cash balance of about US$140 million as of March 31, and no debt.

Shares of Nautilus jumped 16% to C$2.62 in early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange last Friday.