Crypto Miner Argo Blockchain Raises $7.5M in Share Sale; Stock Slumps
Proceeds from the private placing and public sale will be used to pay down debt.
Jul 19, 2023 at 8:07 a.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/24QBDYS6VVH3TOXQCCJ2AYQDLI.JPG)
Bitcoin mining machines. (Sandali Handagama)
Cryptocurrency miner Argo Blockchain (ARB) has raised 5.7 million British pounds ($7.5 million) through the sale of new shares.
The sale comprised a private placing that raised 5.134 million pounds and a public sale that raised 616,000 pounds, the London Stock Exchange-traded company said Wednesday. The funds will be used to reduce the company's outstanding debt. Argo said prior to the sale it had 59.1 million pounds of debt outstanding.
The number of shares sold represent about 12% of the company's pre-sale market cap at price of 10 pence per share, a discount of around 14% to the 30-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) of Argo stock.
In April, the London-based company reported a full-year net loss of 194.2 million pounds compared with net income of 30.8 million pounds the year before, reflecting the sharp drop in the value of bitcoin (BTC) during the previous 12 months, as mining firms across the industry struggled to stay afloat.
Argo avoided the fate of bankruptcy that befell some of its peers by agreeing to sell its Helios mining facility in Dickens Country, Texas, to Galaxy Digital for $65 million. It also agreed a $35 million loan from the Michael Novogratz crypto-focused financial-services firm, secured by its mining equipment.
ARB shares are down more than 20% at 10.74 pence at the time of writing.
UPDATE (July 19, 08:31 UTC): Adds size of Argo's debt in second paragraph, sale price of shares in third.
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Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.
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