The ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is up 0.5% this morning, though it was up even more at the start of trading. The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price is up 4.5%.
Nearmap Ltd (ASX: NEA) capital raising
Nearmap has announced the launch of a capital raising for up to $90 million.
It comprises at least $70 million in an institutional placement and another $20 million in a non-underwritten share purchase plan (SPP).
Nearmap reminded investors that in the FY20 result it reported “strong growth momentum” with closing FY20 annual contract value (ACV) of $106.4 million and statutory revenue of $96.7 million.
The aerial imaging business said that it’s undertaking the capital raising to accelerate its growth opportunities.
There will be four areas that the money is deployed in:
Nearmap plans to achieve deeper penetration into strategic growth industry verticals through increased investment in sales and marketing, particularly in North America. It’s also expanding its product solutions to high value use cases, which will provide greater engagement and utility to customers.
The second focus is accelerating the roll-out of its HyperCamera 3 systems, which will generate expanded coverage with better images and enable expansion into new geographical markets.
The third focus is investing in the operational systems and data to support rapid scaling.
The final reason for the capital raising is that it will allow flexibility to pursue other growth initiatives and respond to opportunities while continuing to take a disciplined approach to cash management.
The $70 million placement will represent 5.7% of the company’s existing shares.
Pricing will be determined through an institutional bookbuild with an underwritten floor price of $2.69 (a 6.9% discount to the last closing price).
Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX: MYR) FY20 result disappoints
The company tried to make it easy for investors to compare the FY20 result to FY19 by reporting its pre-AASB 16 (lease accounting) numbers for the 52 weeks to 25 July 2020.
FY20 total sales were down 15.8% to $2.52 billion which reflected widespread store closures. Comparable store sales were down 3.3% when excluding the period that stores were closed (in both the current year and the prior corresponding period) because of COVID-19.
However, whilst total sales were down online sales jumped 61.1% to $422.5 million.
The ‘operating gross profit’ margin decreased by 85 basis points (0.85%) to 38% but the cost of doing business decreased by $138.6 million (13.8%) to $863.8 million.
Overall, the company reported an underlying loss after tax of $11.3 million.
However, there were $159 million of implementation costs and individually significant items including impairments to brand names of $95.9 million and $37.1 million of lease right-of-use assets.
The pre-AASB 16 statutory net loss was $131.4 million and including AASB-16 the loss was $172.4 million.
Myer said that CBD stores will remain challenged for some time, but the geographical spread of stores in metropolitan and regional locations provides some insulation.
The department business said that the conditions should help the online segment become a billion dollar business quicker.
It’s going to continue working to try to serve customers whilst also lowering costs.
Other news
The team over at Rask Media have covered the rest of today’s news, so make sure you head over there for more ASX share market coverage.
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