Aussie Broadband holds bookbuild for $120m raise

Aussie Broadband is raising $120m via a placement. Picture: iStock.

Aussie Broadband is set to announce a $120m placement Thursday to fund its acquisition of Symbio.

Working on the raise is Goldman Sachs and Citi.

Shares are believed to be on offer in a bookbuild at between $3.55 and $3.80 each.

DataRoom revealed the raising plans on Wednesday, with the telco speaking to investors about an equity raising this week.

Symbio this week received a new binding offer from the listed internet services provider, no longer conditional on due diligence or financing.

On Wednesday it entered into a scheme of arrangement with Aussie Broadband, where shareholders would receive $2.26 in cash and 0.192 Aussie Broadband shares for each Symbio share, implying an offer price of $3.01 a Symbio share.

This was after carrying out due diligence from an earlier offer of $3.15 per share, valuing the target at about $260m.

Before the offer was made, Symbio’s shares last traded at $2.81.

Aussie Broadband said $435m of debt will be used to fund the deal, including a $220m revolving cash facility, a $160m acquisition facility, a $30m bridging facility and a $25m working capital facility.

The funds will be used to fund the acquisition and refinance Aussie Broadband’s existing debt facilities.

Earlier, Superloop was offering $2.85 in cash and scrip before its bid was trumped by its listed competitor.

Symbio, advised by Jarden and MA Moelis, operates in the cloud communications market, replacing old-fashioned telecom networks with software.

The deal will accelerate significant growth in Aussie Broadband’s wholesale, enterprise and government segments, create diversification, increase scale and create cost efficiencies as well as access new capabilities.

It intends to operate Symbio as a stand-alone business in the near-term, with the businesses integrated and efficiencies realised over time.