Vale (RIO) has taken a beating with the ugly stick since the announcement of a new share offering [Jun 16: Vale Raising $15 Billion - More Acquisitions on the Way] Their new share offering priced last night and the stock is down another 6% today.

• Brazilian mining giant Vale (RIO) raised about 19.43 billion reais ($12.17 billion) in a global share offering on Wednesday, building up a war chest to help finance expansion plans and potential acquisitions.
• The company, the world’s largest producer and exporter of iron ore, said it priced 189,063,218 preferred shares at 39.90 reais each and 256,926,766 voting shares at 46.28 reais each.
• Vale, formerly known as CVRD, went ahead with the offering despite a recent slump in financial markets that pushed its share price sharply lower.
• When Vale first announced its plans for the offering on June 10, its preferred shares were trading at 48.62 reais and its voting shares at 58.40 reais. On Wednesday, the preferred shares closed 2 percent lower at 42.60 reais and the voting shares fell 1.42 percent to 49.20 reais.
• Vale, one of the world’s top diversified mining companies, has said it would use the proceeds from the sale to finance growth in existing businesses and future acquisitions, as stipulated in its current $59 billion investment plan.
• Since Roger Agnelli took over as chief executive in 2001, Vale has completed 14 acquisitions, including the $18 billion takeover of Canadian nickel producer Inco in 2006.

There is no great technical reason to buy here, a bit of support in the $28 range and then you need to go to $26s and then $24s. But with one of the best franchises in mining down from $44 to $29 (-34%) in 60 days, I am now interested in beginning to rebuild my stake. So we’re doubling our shares to 500, buying at roughly $29 and going to a 1.2% stake. If we’re lucky enough to get mid $20s, we’ll keep building.

I continue to believe Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold (FCX) would be quite a nice addition to it’s stable.

[Mar 26: CVRD Pulls Out of Xstrata Deal]
[Feb 19: CVRD (RIO) Secures 65% Increase in Iron Ore Pricing]

Long Vale in fund and personal account

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