Austal (ASB AU)'s Placement Puts The Skids On Near-Term M&A

• Taking advantage of a doubling in its share price over the last year, Austal is tapping the market to fund the expansion of its US facilities to fulfil US Navy contracts.

• Austal is placing out 52.6mn new shares (non-underwritten) at A$3.80/share - ~A$200mn all-in - a 15.6% discount to last close, and effectively tapping out its annual placement capacity.

• Provided the placement is squared away, founder John Rothwell will unload $50mn of his own stock. As such, any M&A activity is now firmly on the backburner.