Simmons & Simmons advised Liberum Capital Limited and Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited as Joint Bookrunners on the placing by Sirius Minerals Plc (Sirius) of new ordinary shares and warrants in respect of new ordinary shares. The placing raised gross proceeds of £43m. Sirius is a potash development company quoted on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market (AIM) and is primarily focused on the development of the world’s largest and highest grade polyhalite deposit in the United Kingdom.

The placing was conducted by way of an accelerated book-build, including a private placement into the United States, and the new ordinary shares were placed at a price of 12p per ordinary share. The warrants have an exercise price of 18p per ordinary share and have an exercise period of 18 months or, following approval of the proposed York Potash mine, a shorter period if the volume weighted average price of the ordinary shares exceeds 20p per ordinary share for a specified period.

Admission of the new ordinary shares to trading on AIM took place on 11 March 2014 and the warrants were issued on 14 March 2014.

The Simmons & Simmons team comprised London Corporate partner Chris Horton, US Securities partner Julian Perlmutter and Capital Markets managing associate Tony Geffin. Tax partner Nick Cronkshaw and associate Chris Agnoli provided specialist tax input.