As we have watched the cash levels of the Sprott Physical Silver Trust drop below $7 million in the occasional Net Asset Value Premiums calculations posted here, I have been cautioning that they were going to be doing another follow on offering to raise cash and expand the silver inventory.
This offering is generally bullish for silver as it will take another large chunk of bullion out of the spin machine, further reducing the physical basis for leveraged paper silver.
The premiums have been reflecting that anticipation for some weeks now. The offerings tend to compress the premium on the fund for a period of time.
And here it is.
Press Release
Sprott Physical Silver Trust Prices Follow-on Offering of Trust Units In An Aggregate Amount of US$269,575,000
Nov 9, 2012
TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2012 /CNW/ - Sprott Physical Silver Trust (the "Trust") (NYSE: PSLV / TSX: PHS.U), a trust created to invest and hold substantially all of its assets in physical silver bullion and managed by Sprott Asset Management LP, announced today that it has priced its follow-on offering of 20,500,000 transferable, redeemable units of the Trust ("Units") at a price of US$13.15 per Unit (the "Offering"). As part of the Offering, the Trust has granted the underwriters an over-allotment option to purchase up to 3,075,000 additional Units. The gross proceeds from the Offering will be US$269,575,000 (US$310,011,250 if the underwriters exercise in full the over-allotment option).
The Trust will use the net proceeds of the Offering to acquire physical silver bullion in accordance with the Trust's objective and subject to the Trust's investment and operating restrictions described in the prospectus related to the Offering. Under the trust agreement governing the Trust, the net proceeds of the Offering per Unit must be not less than 100% of the most recently calculated net asset value per Unit of the Trust prior to, or upon determination of, pricing of the Offering.
The Units are listed on NYSE Arca and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols "PSLV" and "PHS.U", respectively. The Offering will be made simultaneously in the United States and Canada by underwriters led by Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets in the United States and RBC Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley in Canada...
