re;"...otherwise, the market will assume straight dilution. "
I think that there is a knee-jerk misconception about "dilution".
It's considered undesirable when a company has positive earnings because earnings per share go down. However, in an exploration or development company with negative earnings, the loss per share also moves closer to zero. In other words, it moves the earnings per share number in a positive direction.
The money from selling the shares immediately adds to the tangible book value. For example, if the book value is .32 with $10M, another $10M raise from equity sale doubles the book value to .64
Tangible book value, physical assests aren't really meaningful for this kind of company. Intangibles and "good will" have huge relative value but unfortuneatly are subject to the current state of psychological warfare going on at any given point in time. :)
If the money is used to advance to profitability, say to fund a bankable feasibility study with expected positive outcome in the case of a mining co. or a mandantory trial with expected positive outcome in the case of a bio-tech, it's a good way to go. imo
A lot of development stage companies have a huge debt overhang. Anavex has very miniscule debt. They have also, amazingly held the share count virtually constant at 36 million shares for a remarkably long time. Considering all the milestones reached, that's a credit to shrewd and frugal management.
fwiw, I would be ok with an equity raise.
