LUNCH DEALS

In case you're hungry for more wheels and deals, we're now publishing a wrap of the morning's activity in the same popular format as Breakfast Deals. Among others, today on the menu we have Billabong, GrainCorp and Apex Minerals raisings, plus some more updates from OZ Minerals, Bravura Solutions and Whitehaven Coal.

-- Billabong International, the iconic Gold Coast surf-ware label founded by Gordon and Rena Merchant in the 1970s, has announced a $290 million capital raising via a two-for-11 accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer. Retail investors are hoped to contribute up to $90 million, while the $200 million institutional component has been underwritten by Goldman Sachs JBWere. The $7.50 a share offer is at a 29 per cent discount to Wednesday's close, when the company entered into the pre-open. Overnight, stop three of the Billabong Pro Tahiti surfing competition was called-off due to small half-metre waves.

-- OZ Minerals has announced a resources increase at Prominent Hill, which could change the dynamics of the sale of the asset. Resources have been increased by 32 per cent to 245,000 tonnes of contained copper. Inferred resources at the Western Copper deposit now stand at 14.5 million tonnes, grading 1.7 per cent copper, 0.28 grams per tonne of gold and 3.7 grams per tonne of silver. Last week it emerged that Owen Hegarty would take the helm at the recently-sold Martabe project in Sumatra.

-- GrainCorp has launched a $60 million underwritten institutional placement and a share purchase plan that will open on June 1. The placement, at $6.25 per share, is at a 15.5 per cent discount to Friday's close and is being fully underwritten by Credit Suisse and ABN Amro Morgans. Mallesons Stephen Jaques advised the underwriters. The SPP will be at the lower of $6.25 or a 7.5 per cent discount to the company's volume weighted average price over the pricing period: June 23 to June 29. It has been speculated that GrainCorp could seek to merge with CBH Group following the recent offer launched by Canada's Viterra for rival ABB Grain.

-- Bravura Solutions is proposing a non-renounceable rights issue to raise $33.4 million. The raising, underwritten by private equity firm Ironbridge Capital, will help repay approximately $28 million in debt. Ironbridge, which holds approximately 0.49 per cent of Bravura, is set to receive a three per cent underwriting fee plus options worth $13 million at a 15 cent exercise price, the same price as the proposed rights issue. The deal could also see Ironbridge potentially acquire the superannuation and wealth management software provider.

-- Apex Minerals has also announced a $28 million capital raising. Some $14 million of this has already been raised via a share placement at 20 cents per share, a clean 20 per cent discount to Friday's close and a rights issue to raise a further $14 million will follow, also at 20 cents. Perth corporate advisor Azure Capital has been appointed as lead manager and sole underwriter to the rights issue, which has a record date of May 28. Joe Gutnick's Legend Mining has agreed to subscribe for $2 million worth of new shares and has signed a sub-underwriting agreement with Azure.

-- Comet Ridge has announced the placement of $7.5 million worth of shares at 34 cents each. The placement, managed by Wilson HTM Corporate Finance, will be followed by a one-for-five non-renounceable entitlement offer to raise $13.8 million. The offer will also be underwritten by Wilson HTM. Among the other capital raising today, Tiger Resources has announced a share purchase plan, Cardia Technologies proposes to issue new shares to raise $2.16 million in a placement managed by BGF Equities and both GBM Resources and Mikoh Corporation have announced non-renounceable rights issues.

-- Whitehaven Coal has dropped its plans to merge with Gloucester Coal, via a reverse takeover that would have given Whitehaven shareholders dominance of the combined entity. Noble Group's $7 a share offer trumped the proposed Whitehaven scheme of arrangement and now gives Gloucester a new home in the sprawling Hong Kong-based Noble empire if other rumoured bids don't materialise. If they do, they are speculated to come from Xstrata, India's International Coal Ventures or various state-owned Chinese companies. Maybe even Felix Resources could make an offer?

-- Babcock & Brown has had its stake in Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Fund North America, an unlisted fund based in San Francisco, bought out by the fund's local management team, who are backed by John Hancock Life Insurance. The move gives the entity a new signature: SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners, perhaps in homage to the song by 80s pop star Chris Rea (Steel River, not 'Infrastructure Partners'). The fund closed in October last year with committed capital of over $US1.9 billion. Over the last few months Babcock has been divesting of its assets and management rights contracts.

-- Great Southern's rescue team has been announced, with Marin Jones, Andrew Saker, Darren Weaver and James Stewart of Ferrier Hodgson appointed as joint and several voluntary administrators over the weekend. The foursome will be responsible for working out how to sell or salvage Great Southern's 240,000 hectares of forest and 150,000 cows. Macquarie Capital, Elders and Ray White Rural have meanwhile been working on the disposal of three properties. Great Southern, Australia's biggest managed investment scheme operator, has 43,000 investors and raised $1.8 billion over the last five years.

-- Australian Agricultural Company director Charles Bright has resigned, effective yesterday. Bright was among the line-up of board members facing re-election on May 27. AAco will now hold its AGM on or before June 12. Chairman Brett Heading and director Phillip Toyne will face the shareholders along with Arunas Paliulis, representing Emirati group IFFCO, Nick Burton Taylor and Chris Roberts. Taylor and Roberts were AACo's former managing director and chairman respectively. Riskmetrics, CGI Lewsi and the Australian Shareholders Association were recommending that investors vote out Bright, Heading and Toyne.

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