UPDATE 1-Australia's Liontown Resources tumbles on discounted share placement, debt facility
(Adds details of fund raising in paragraphs 2-6)
Oct 20 (Reuters) - Shares of Australia's Liontown Resources slumped 34% on Friday, after the miner said it would secure up to A$1.2 billion ($759 million) in total in a discounted share placement and debt issue to fund its flagship Kathleen Valley Lithium project.
The fund-raising move came a few days after U.S.-based miner Albemarle abandoned a A$6.6 billion ($4.16 billion) buyout bid for Liontown.
The fund-raising will be in two parts consisting of a debt facility worth A$760 million and an equity raising of A$376 million, Liontown said on Thursday.
Equity will be raised at a price of A$1.80 per share, a discount of 55% to Liontown's last close of A$2.79 on Oct. 13.
Shares of Liontown on Friday hit their lowest since March 27, when Albemarle's takeover proposal was first made public.
In a separate statement on Friday, the company said it will raise an additional A$10.8 million, which along with the earlier equity raising and debt funding will be used towards refinancing existing debt and completing construction and ramp-up of the Kathleen Valley project. ($1 = 1.5815 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Nausheen Thusoo in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Subhranshu Sahu)
