Shares in GEO Exploration (AIM: GEO) fell 39% to 0.06p on Tuesday as trading resumed following completion of a £1.16 million fundraising through a placing and retail offer.
The AIM-listed gold explorer raised approximately £1.04 million through the issue of 1.725 billion new shares, alongside a further £122,825 from 204.7 million shares issued through a retail offer.
In total, GEO is issuing 1,929,708,333 new ordinary shares as part of the fundraising, all priced at 0.06p per share.
The issue materially increases the number of shares in circulation and therefore dilutes the percentage ownership of existing shareholders who did not participate in the fundraising. The percentage increase in GEO’s total share count cannot be calculated from the fundraising figures alone without the company’s pre-issue shares outstanding.
GEO said the new capital would support advancement of its exploration portfolio, including work at the Gorge project, where recent geochemical exploration detected gold in 99.6% of soil samples and returned a peak assay of 7.74g/t gold.
Chief financial officer Hamza Choudhry said the company remained focused on disciplined capital allocation as it seeks to advance its projects and generate shareholder value.
