The bank initially opened the raise two weeks ago, after it had discussions with ASIC in the wake of AUSTRAC taking court action for an alleged 23 million transactions that breached reporting standard.
Westpac had the aim to raise $500 million from retail investors as part of a $2.5 billion raise.
The result this week saw Westpac issue approximately 31.9 million new shares on Wednesday to 40,990 applicants.
However, the final raised amount of $770 million excludes $68 million of withdrawal requests from around 3,390 shareholders, who took the exit option as part of the bank’s share purchase plan.
Retail investors were able to apply for up to $30,000 of shares under the plan. The issue price per share ended at $24.20, representing a 2 per cent discount to the volume-weighted average price of shares traded during the five days leading up to and including 2 December.
The share plan had been available to around 618,300 shareholders.
The major bank’s raise proved controversial, with some questioning how much it knew about a potential AUSTRAC enforcement.
Sarah Simpkins
Sarah Simpkins is a journalist at Momentum Media, reporting primarily on banking, financial services and wealth.
Prior to joining the team in 2018, Sarah worked in trade media and produced stories for a current affairs program on community radio.
You can contact her on [email protected].
