Articles: Barrick Gold Corp to raise more than US$3-billion in share sale, shelve Pascua-Lama mine, Gourmet burger chain relishes a global rollout, starting in Canada

Controversy and construction problems of a gold-mine in Chile are largely responsible for Barrick’s debt.

We always hear news of a big company announcing its IPO but rarely does a secondary equity offering make the news headlines… unless of course you’re the world’s largest gold producer! Drowning in $15.4 billion of debt, Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. has announced plans to sell more of its equity in an attempt to raise $3 billion dollars to repay some of that debt.

You can expect to see one of these in your neighbourhood pretty soon if all goes well for Relish.

Meanwhile, a booming franchise from New Brunswick called Relish Gourmet Burgers plans to expand from its current 5 locations to 54 locations across Canada in just two years with the help of a Dubai investment firm. However, the owner’s expression of his desire to go global seems pretty far-fetched to me at this point. This story reminded me a lot of Potbelly sandwiches which itself had recently undergone its IPO to raise funds for mass expansion. But surely opening dozens of stores in a few years requires a substantial raising of capital; so I’m left wondering if we’ll be seeing Relish Gourmet Burgers ringing the Wall Street bell in the near future too.

The two stories are a good reminder to me of how vital financial markets (especially the stock market) are to all businesses. It is a great institution through which indebted companies can find salvation through equity offerings and it is also where companies like Relish can find the means –and optimism– to go big.

Images: <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CypQzbtC1Q0/UYt1pZbqtZI/AAAAAAAAKXE/zNzdMg1Exlw/AntiBarrick-GOLD.jpg> <http://s3-media2.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/FkOCX3LkEpPT2AZI7HEucA/l.jpg>