Elders today announced a $77.4 million one-for-four non-renounceable entitlement offer at $3.40 per share.

It also said it had completed a placement of 7.35 million ordinary shares to institutional and sophisticated investors at the same price, raising $25 million.

The $102.4 million raised in total will be used to acquire Elders Hybrids at $95 each.

Elders chief executive Mark Allison said the offer to acquire the hybrid shares represented an excellent opportunity for holders to monetise investments.

It also provided an opportunity for Elders to “normalise” its capital structure, to the benefit of its ordinary shareholders.

“The proposed simplification of our capital structure is the final step in the transformation of Elders from the complex and highly-geared conglomerate it once was to the simplified and efficient business we now are,” Allison said.

“Importantly, removal of the hybrids will allow Elders to fulfil its undertaking to ordinary shareholders to recommence dividends at the completion of the 2017 financial year.”

Elders shares rose today after emerging from a trading halt and were up 45 cents, or 12.4 per cent, at $4.08 at 1106 AEST.

-AAP