Companies which refused to expand capped SPPs

Acusensus (ACE), December 2024: chose not to increase its $2m SPP cap when retail shareholders applied for $7.3m worth of stock after an earlier $10 million placement.

Aspen Group (APZ): announced a $70.2m placement in May 2025, followed by a skinny $4m SPP which wasn't expanded even when $18m came through the door. The pricing was $2.90 per share and the announcement failed to detail the discount. The offer was managed by MST and Aitken Mount. Stock was in the money throughout the offer period and therefore the SPP was swamped with $18m in applications. The scale back policy was pro-rata based on receiving 6.93% of your existing holding or the equivalent of 1-for-14.4, although there was a minimum allocation of 290 shares which covered everyone up to 4,184 shares or shareholding worth $15,271 based on the June 10 price of $3.65. To get the full $30,000 allocation you needed to own 148,953 shares. There are only 104 shareholders with more than 100,000 shares which is a reminder that you only need 134 people to stump up 30k and you've already raised more than $4 million. Simply appalling that this $4 million SPP cap wasn't lifted at all for the 1762 shareholders who could have theoretically applied for $53 million worth of stock, particularly considering it is capitalised at more than $800 million.

Atlas Arteria (ALX), 2020: $420 million placement at $6.20 followed by a $30,000 SPP capped at $75 million. Was only marginally in the money at the close but still attracted $180 million in applications and the board failed to lift the cap. The scale back was based on size of holding with a minimum allocation to all of $1000. See announcement.

AUB Group (AUB), 2023: raised $150 million in a placement at $24 and then offered a $15m SPP which was not increased after attracting $37 million in applications from 1,908 holders. The scale back formula included $984 worth of shares for all.

AUB Group (AUB), 2024: announced a $200m placement at $27.50 on May 22, a 6.7% discount to the last close of $29.46, to fund an insurance acquisition and said it was “considering” doing a $25m SPP but there was no firm commitment. It wasn't until June 13 that the SPP announcement came through and with a record date to participate of June 12, we're treating this as a separate capital raising. There is no alternative VWAP pricing but with the stock at $31, it is nicely in the money. AUB has around 5,000 retail shareholders so the theoretical maximum in applications is $150 million but the cap will only accommodate 16.7% of this, which is more generous than many other offers. Despite $49 million coming through the door, they stuck with the $25m and scaled back pro-rata with a minimum allocation of 36 shares costing $990.

Audinate (AD8), 2020: $40m raising comprising a $28m placement at $5.15 and then a $12m SPP at the same price or a 2% discount to VWAP which ended up being priced at $5.12. No disclosure of total subscriptions or participation data in the SPP outcome announcement. All we know is that the $12m cap was retained and those with less than 50 shares received nothing but everyone else got 61% of their existing holding.

Audinate (AD8), 2023: $50 million placement at $13 followed by a $20m SPP, which included secondary pricing based on a 2% discount to VWAP which didn't come into play. Was under-written by UBS and Cannacord and priced at a 9% discount to the previous close. With around 15,000 holders the theoretical maximum in SPP applications was $450 million. The offer was over-subscribed and they failed to lift the $20 million cap. No disclosure of participation numbers or total applications in this skinny SPP outcome announcement but the scale back formula saw everyone with more than 50 shares fully allocated and the rest dealt with pro-rata according to their holding. Stock was at $16.18 on December 31, 2023, so company is booming with a $1.35 billion market cap.

Austal (ASB), April 2025: Poor effort by ship builder Austal to impose a $20m cap on its SPP offered to 10,000+ retail shareholders and then fail to lift the cap when $31m came through the door. Instos were allocated $200m in the earlier placement.

AWE, 2017: $15,000 SPP at 50c closing on December 14. 7,669 holders so maximum application $265m chasing $10m. Received $76m in applications and scale back formula involved everyone getting at least $500 worth. See announcement.

Boart Longyear, 2009: $15,000 SPP at 27c. Company received $US118m in applications from 10,000 shareholders but scaled this back to $US75 million with everyone getting around 65% of their application. See announcement.

Breville, 2020: $30,000 SPP at $17 after $94 million placement and stuck with its $10 million cap despite receiving $54.7 million in applications. See outcome announcement.

Capitol Health, 2020: $30,000 SPP at 16c after $30m placement and stuck rigidly to its $10 million cap, scaling everyone back to a maximum of around $16,300, although it wasn't clear in this outcome announcement.

Cedar Woods, 2014: $15,000 SPP at $6.80. Scaled back by two thirds after received $15m in applications. Stuck with $5m cap and scaled back based on size of applications. See announcement.

CFS Retail, 2014: $15,000 SPP at $1.782 after placement. Scaled back everyone to about $2100. The $15 million SPP received $73 million in applications and there was no expansion in the cap. See announcement.

Corporate Travel Management, January 2022 (CTD): $15,000 SPP at $21 or the 5 day VWAP with no discount. Capped at $25 million. This followed a $75 million placement to fund Helloworld Corporate acquisition. Good transparency in the outcome announcement which disclosed that 4,487 of the 15,539 (29%) eligible shareholders participated with the average application being $10,756. Disappointing they didn't lift the $25 million cap and refunded $23.6 million based on pro rata of existing holding but anyone with less than 5 shares got zeroed.

Credit Corp, 2019: $15,000 SPP at $20.45 placement price or a 2.5% discount to VWAP. Closed well in the money. Investors were scaled back to 39% or 288 new shares based on size of application. See announcement.

Domino's Pizza, 2022 (DMP): $150m placement at floor price of $65.05 with a $15m following SPP. Placement ended up being priced at $66.38, matching the previous close, and SPP offered a 2% discount to VWAP. With 20,638 eligible shareholders, the theoretical maximum for applications was $619 million but only $18.93 million came through the door from 1,126 applicants and still they scaled it back to the capped amount of $15 million. Wrote to the company requesting transparency and an expanded cap. The participation data was good but the scale back was pathetic for a company capitalised at $5.85 billion. Final VWAP price was $64.54, a 2.77% of $1.84 discount to the placement price.

Fletcher Building, 2009: The $NZ100 million SPP at $4.15 followed a $NZ405 million placement and was scaled back with applicants receiving 56.56% if they applied for the maximum of $A9000. See scale back announcement.

Gindalbie Metals, 2010: $10,000 SPP at 93c, with most applicants scaled back to $8700. Initially announced capital raising of up to $206 million with the SPP capped at $20 million. Received $26 million in applications and scaled everyone by about 25%. See conclusion announcement.

GUD Holdings (GUD), 2010: $15,000 SPP at $8.30 or a 2.5% discount to market. Scaled everyone back by 55%. This followed a $40 million institutional placement and the offer document flagged a $15 million cap which was maintained. See scale back formula.

IPH Ltd (IPH), September 2024: the booming real estate focused intellectual property company raised $100m in a placement at $5.65 to fund an $89 million Canadian acquisition and followed up with a $25 million SPP at $5.46, which was adjusted for the 19c final dividend. See SPP document. Received $53m in SPP applications and gave no ground scaling back to the $25m cap with a pro rata allocation based on size of holding. Strangely declared that all applications would be scaled back. No minimum allocation. The stock closed at $5.69 on October 4, giving it a market cap of $1.61 billion.

Johns Lyng Group (JLG), 2023: $65 million floating price placement to fund two small acquisitions. Under-written at $5 which was priced at $5.15, a modest 5.2% discount to the previous close of $5.43. Not sure why a straightforward placement needed 3 ticket clippers in JP Morgan, Cannacord Genuity and Moelis. The follow on $5 million SPP has secondary VWAP pricing based on a 2% discount. Stock was at $5.32 on July 7 so SPP likely to be heavily over-subscribed given the company has almost 6,000 shareholders who could theoretically apply for $300 million worth of SPP stock. Have written to the company requesting an increase to at least $10m but they ignored it and stuck with the $5m cap despite $16m coming through the door.

Megaport, 2019: completed a $50m placement at $4 and then received $47.6 million worth of applications for the subsequent SPP but stuck with the $10 million cap. See announcement. Not clear on the scale back formula.

NAB, 2009: stuck with a $750 million cap on its SPP in 2009 despite receiving $2.6 billion in applications. See this announcement promising all applicants at least $500 worth of shares and then this subsequent letter from chairman Michael Chaney.

Pinnacle Investment Management, 2018: announced a $10 million cap and stuck with it despite receiving $22 million in applications. All applicants received 56% of their application. See announcement.

QBE Insurance, 2009: The $100 million offer at $5000 a pop received $226 million in applications and QBE came up with a unique scale back formula whilst sticking with the $100m cap.

Retail Food Group, 2014: $15,000 SPP at $4.80. Everyone scaled back to 47% of application after they refused to lift the $15m cap. See announcement.

Seek, 2009: $5000 SPP at $2.60 following a $100 million placement which included $35 million to the Bassat founders and the Packer interests. There was no cap in the original announcement but $15 million appeared in the offer document. Received $20.4 million in applications and the scale back was based on the size of your holding.

Sezzle, 2020: After raising $79.1 million in a placement at $5.30, Sezzle announced a $7.2 million SPP which was then remarkably swamped by $78.2 billion worth of applications. Sadly, the cap wasn't lifted so $71 million or 92% of all application monies were refunded.

Silex Systems, 2021: Announced a $33m placement at $1.27 million which was followed by a $7m SPP which was in the money ahead of the close. It attracted $18 million from over 1000 applicants and the scale back to $7 million involved a flat $2000 allocation to a majority of applicants and a pro rata allocation above that. No disclosure as to what size of shareholding received more than $2000 worth of stock or what size received the full $30,000.

Spirit Telecom (STI), 2020: $18.2 million placement at 32c to help fund 3 acquisitions followed by a $5 million SPP with no VWAP pricing alternative. Was flooded with $16.7 million in applications and board refunded $11.7 million sticking with the original $5 million cap but scaled back based on size of application rather than size of holding.

SRG Group (SRG), 2018: $15,000 SPP at $1.60 after acquisition. $9.8m applied for $4m with no increase in the cap. See announcement on scale back based on size of holding.


SRG Global (SRG), September 2024: completed a $60m placement at 83c, which it claimed was a tiny discount to the "dividend adjusted price of 84c" and followed up with a skinny $6m SPP on the same terms. Bell Potter ran the raising which was to fund the $111 million acquisition of water security and energy transition company Diona. The stock was at $1.04 on the closing date so it was well in the money. The company has around 4,000 holders so the theoretical maximum in SPP applications is around $120 million. Stuck with the $6m cap, even when $53m came through the door.

Villa World, 2013: $15,000 SPP at $1.60. Received $9.8 million in applications but decided to stick with $5m cap with everyone receiving 49% of what they applied for. See announcement.

Webjet, 2013: $15,000 SPP at $3.60 after $25m placement to fund acquisition. Capped at $5m and received $26m in applications. Investors were scaled back to 19% of application. See scale back announcement.

Western Areas, 2013: $15,000 SPP at $3.80. Scale back based on size of holding. See scale back announcement as held the line with $15 million cap in offer document after receiving $26 million in applications.

ZIP, August 2024: announced a $267m raising comprising a $217m placement and a $50m SPP. The pricing had a $1.52 under-written floor which was a 5.3% discount to the previous close of $1.61, but ended up being priced at $1.56 in a bookbuild, which was a good result and only a 2.8% discount. Goldman Sachs was the main under-writer. The $1.61 SPP has secondary pricing based on a 2% discount to VWAP but this is unlikely to come into play given the stock was at $1.75 on August 9, giving it a market cap of $2.2 billion. See SPP offer document. Has recently replaced Altium in the ASX200 and this has been quite a comeback given the stock fell below 25c last year. The 2022-23 annual report claimed it had 108,075 shareholders, albeit 76,856 with less than a marketable parcel of $500. It then did a badly structured unmarketable parcel buyout program late last year which took out a whopping 69,669 small holders, collectively paying them just $12.5 million for their 30.86 million shares at an exit price of just 40.34c. This left around 39,000 holders to compete for a nicely in-the-money SPP but only 13% of 4,301 applied for a collective $85.1 million. They stuck with the $50m cap but at least gave all applicants $1000 worth of stock. There was also a new disclosure revealing that applicants collectively owned 58% of the shares on issue, suggesting it skewed strongly to the larger holders and many smaller holders didn't bother to apply.

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