Atlas Iron raises half of money sought in share offering

By James Regan

SYDNEY, July 20 (Reuters) - Australian miner Atlas Iron managed to raise less than half the A$180 million ($133 million) it sought in a share offering as it battles low iron ore prices and sagging investment interest in the sector.

The troubled miner launched the offer last month, asking contractors and new and existing shareholders to buy heavily discounted shares in a last ditch attempt to stay afloat.

"There isn't much confidence in the iron ore market right now, which really hurt Atlas," said a broker familiar with the offering.

Atlas managed to raise only A$86 million in its offering but Managing Director David Flanagan still called it an "immense vote of confidence" in the company.

During the offering, Flanagan told Reuters, much of the support derived from the company's mostly 33,000 individual shareholders.

Founder and chairman of Australian miner Fortescue Metals Group Andrew Forrest was among the investors, taking an undisclosed number of the new Atlas shares.

Earlier, reflecting poor investor interest in the mining sector, Fortescue had to make three attempts to refinance $2.3 billion in debt and succeeded only after paying a higher yield.

Last month, rating agency Fitch also downgraded its outlook on BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO.L - news) from stable to negative, after cutting its price assumptions for iron ore and other metals.

Atlas' stock has not traded since April 2, shortly before shutting its three mines and saying it needed fresh capital and a new business model to survive. The stock was frozen as 12 Australian cents. Two months earlier Atlas had posted a A$1.1 billion ($806 million) half-year loss.

Mining was suspended when iron ore fell to $47 a tonne, as Atlas was losing $15 on each tonne mined. The miner has since established a $50 break-even price, helped by a profit-sharing arrangement with contractors.

The last of its mines reopened this month, with a hedging strategy on some future production until the end of the year guaranteeing Atlas floor prices of $50-$60 a tonne.

Iron ore stood at $50 a tonne on Monday.

The profit-sharing deal required contractors to put A$40 million towards the share offering. The new shares were priced at 5 Australian cents each, with a free option at 7.5 Australian cents.

"This raising will strengthen our balance sheet considerably, giving us a measure of further protection against iron ore price volatility," Flanagan said.

($1 = 1.3526 Australian dollars) (Editing by Tom Hogue)