Interest from institutional investors in PGG Wrightson rights was a sign the stock was back in favour, according to local brokers.
The rights were trading at a high of 18.3c when the issue closed on Monday and 17.2 million were traded last Friday, a sign institutions were once again acquiring shares in the stock, which has been out of favour for most of this year.
Craigs Investment Partners broker Peter McIntyre said buying the rights was an easy way for institutions to acquire shares in PGG Wrightson.
"I get the feeling a number of institutions were primarily looking for a good quantity of shares on their books and they can only do that by purchasing rights."
The underwritten issue will raise more than $180 million by entitling shareholders to subscribe for nine new shares for every existing eight shares held at an issue price of 45c each.
PGG Wrightson's new cornerstone shareholder, Chinese corporate Agria, will take its shareholding from 12% to 19.99% with the issue.
Mr McIntyre said institutional investors appeared to view favourably PGG Wrightson as a fundamentally sound business.
It has reduced debt, and will do so even more following the rights issue, and now has a cornerstone shareholder in Agria.
He said there appeared to also be a view that PGG Wrightson would benefit from a revival in farmer support as farmers see changes at the board level and an improved performance.
Shares in PGG Wrightson were steady at 64c yesterday.
