Simpson Thacher represented Aura Minerals Inc. (TSX: ORA) (“Aura Minerals”) and selling shareholders in Aura Mineral’s initial primary and secondary public offering with restricted selling efforts of Brazilian depositary receipts (certificados de depósito de ações, or “BDRs”). The BDRs of Aura Minerals are traded on the São Paulo Stock Exchange (B3) under the ticker symbol “AURA32.”
The offering, which raised R$790.1 million in gross proceeds (being R$271.4 million in gross proceeds to the Aura Minerals), was the first-ever initial public offering in Brazil with restricted selling efforts to institutional investors relying on Brazilian Securities Commission (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários, or the “CVM”) Instruction 476/2009. The BDRs were also offered to (i) qualified institutional buyers in the United States under Rule 144A; (ii) to non-U.S. persons outside the United States and Canada in reliance on Regulation S, and (iii) to certain accredited investors (as defined under applicable Canadian securities laws) in Canada on a private placement basis.
Aura Minerals is a gold and copper production company, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ORA,” focused on the development and operation of gold and copper in the Americas, with operating mining assets currently located in Brazil, Mexico and Honduras.
The Simpson Thacher team included Grenfel S. Calheiros, Paulo F. Cardoso, Siddharth Fresa and Winnie Y. Loureiro (Capital Markets); and Jonathan Cantor and Jasmine Hay (Tax).