Hudbay Minerals closes $402.5 million upsized public offering

Hudbay Minerals’ (TSX, NYSE: HBM) recently announced public offering to boost its near-term growth initiatives was oversubscribed by over $100 million, resulting in total proceeds of $402.48 million, the Canadian miner said on Friday.

The bought deal offering was led by RBC Capital Markets and BMO Capital Markets, as joint bookrunners, and CIBC Capital Markets, National Bank Financial, Scotiabank and TD Securities as co-lead managers. Also involved were Barclays Capital and Canaccord Genuity, amongst others.

In total, Hudbay issued over 42.36 million common shares priced at $9.50 each, including the full exercise of the underwriters’ overallotment for about 5.52 million shares. Originally, it had planned to issue 31.6 million shares plus a 15% overallotment.

By midday Friday in New York, shares of Hudbay Minerals traded 2.9% higher at $9.57 apiece, for a market capitalization of $3.4 billion. In Toronto, its shares rose 1.6% to C$12.99 apiece, for a market capitalization of C$4.6 billion.

As previously announced, the net proceeds will be used by Hudbay to accelerate mine pre-stripping activities and mill optimization initiatives at Copper Mountain. In 2023, the company bought a 75% interest in the mine, located south of Princeton, BC, elevating itself as the third-largest copper producer in Canada.

The company also plans to use the funds to enhance balance sheet flexibility through debt repayments as part of its “3P” plan for a sanctioning decision on the Copper World complex in Arizona. An investment decision is contingent on receiving state-level permits for the Phase 1 mine; a draft groundwater permit had been passed but was met with mixed reviews.

In addition, Hudbay will direct some resources to evaluate mill throughput enhancement opportunities at the Constancia mine in Peru and the New Britannia operation in Snow Lake, Manitoba.