JOHANNESBURG, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Platinum producer Lonmin plans a $400 million rights issue of new shares and will proceed with a planned restructuring to cut 6,000 jobs in the face of depressed prices, it said on Wednesday.
The moves, along with a debt restructuring, are last-ditch efforts to turn round a company that has seen its share price fall to record lows this year. The $400 million rights issue exceeds its current market capitalisation of 170 million pounds ($262 million).
Lonmin also announced that it had cut its capital expenditure for the year to Sept. 30 to $136 million from an original target of $250 million.
The company, which had already flagged the possibility of 6,000 job losses with the aid of voluntary severance and early retirement programmes, said the restructuring is now expected to be completed by the end of September 2016.
It said that South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which owns about 7 percent stake of the company, had indicated to Lonmin's board that it would take up its full entitlement and might "underwrite a material portion of the proposed rights issue in excess of that.
Lonmin shares in Johannesburg were up more than 7 percent in early trade.
The embattled platinum producer, whose Marikana mine was the scene of the police killing of 34 wildcat strikers three years ago, also said it planned to amend its debt facilities "for a total of $370 million, maturing in May 2020".
It said this would be conditional on the raising of $400 million in new equity funding through the rights issue.
"The amended debt facilities will replace the existing debt facilities commitments, which as at 30 September 2015 were approximately $543 million and mature in May and June 2016," it said.
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