Major wine company slashes share price

Australian Vintage (ASX code AVG) is hoping to raise nearly $20 million by offering shares at a mere 20 cents each.

That's 42 per cent below the closing price before the announcement and a whopping 73.5pc less than the net asset value per share.

Gone are the days when you could be pretty sure that investors would snap up shares offered at five or 10pc below the market.

The bargain basement pricing is despite the fact AVG sales this year are roughly in line with last year and margins and underlying earnings are improving.

But the fundraiser is part of a major capital restructure in the face of soaring debt.

The 20 cent ticket has ensured that the $15m sought from wholesale investors has been raised within a week.

Retail investors will no doubt kick in their $4.9m share although the shares are selling for only 19 cents on the market.

RLF Agriculture (RLF) may find it more difficult to raise $1.1m with its forthcoming SPP.

At the time of writing, details had not been released but the company has warned that revenue this financial year is likely to be around $9m, against last October's forecast of at least $15m.

One of the problems is that its soil carbon pilot program with the Commonwealth Bank isn't going to provide the expected $1m in revenue this year, because farmers have been slow to come on board. RLF is now giving its whole carbon business the hard stare.

Meanwhile, would-be urea producer Neurizer (NRZ) has seen its shares more than double in a week in heavy trading. The Punter is following the crowd with a bid for 200,000 NRZ 2025 7c options (NRZO) at 0.003 each.