I also found this surprising @Escapetrader

A huge contract win could help justify it, but my guess is it's an acquisition.. We will see!

Per the AFR, $90m on its "technology development plan" and $20m for acquisitions. Which leaves $10m for a kick arse Christmas party or something.

If that is the case this seems to suggest they think the share price is still too high, and are just making hay while the sun shines.

"Hey, the market loves us, let's shore up the balance sheet (even more)?"

Not dumb if true, but only time will tell...

An acquisition is one of those scenarios that had me slightly more bearish on the big cap raise recently… Does the money burn a hole? We will see…

So it’s not an acquisition…

I don’t hold any longer although I am a very interested observer and potential holder again…

from what I can see:

• the institutional placement will raise 120 mil and dilute shareholders by a little over 10%
• I couldn’t see mention of a retail placement but perhaps that will still come? At a nearly 20% discount to the 5 day weighted price I would like to see an opportunity for retail holders
• the intent of the raise is to increase capacity of manufacturing, staff and generally cater for expected growth in demand
• if that growth comes this may seem like a prudent action but for mine they were already well capitalised and this raise might create an environment where funds don’t need to so carefully managed… Also, what if demand is not as strong as expected although you’d have to say an outbreak of peace does not look to be on the cards after th news of recent days

I wonder how much of this is the investment banker on the shoulder saying "Make hay while the sun shines. You've got a juicy valuation, raise while you can!"

I'm as big a bull as anyone on the promise of AI, but the way it was positioned in the presentation struck me as a little opportunistic -- ie trying to capitalize on the hype. Not that their tech isnt well suited to that, but this is a lot of money that will be spent on research that may or may not yield any reasonable ROI. And let's face it, R&D is very hit and miss in terms of payoff.

There will be no retail offer. They have already done an SPP in the past 12 months so can’t do another. They COULD have done a fairer pro rata raising but chose not to. And this is after scaling back shareholders in the previous recent SPP but now raising more capital again.

Be warned - this is a Board who have chosen to treat their retail shareholders unfairly twice in a year and for no good reason.