MACQUARIE Bank Ltd.’s investment of up to $30 million in listed nickel miner NiHAO Mineral Resources International Inc. via a private placement yesterday caused the miner’s share to hit a fresh record on Monday.

In a Philippine Stock Exchange filing, NiHAO said Macquarie Bank has agreed to subscribe to as many as 150 million new common shares of NiHAO in a multi-tranche agreement that expires after one year.

Based on the agreement, NiHAO would raise approximately $25 million to $30 million from the share sale.

Representatives of NiHAO and Macquarie Bank were not immediately available for comment.

NiHAO shares jumped 8.83 percent to P11.58 each on Monday, giving it a market value of P10.19 billion ($240.1 million). The miner rose as much as 11.7 percent earlier in the session.

NiHAO said the deal is still subject to approval of stockholders, which will be tackled during a special meeting set on April 12. 

Until then, Macquarie Bank should not make any subscription that will cause its holdings in NiHAO to exceed 95 million shares, or just under 10 percent of the company issued capital stock after the offer, the disclosure said.

The company added that the subscription price will be based on 90 percent of the volume weighted average price of NiHAO shares in any given tranche.

At present, NiHAO generates earnings from its 30-percent share in Oriental Vision Mining Philippines Corp., which shipped 584,638 metric tons of nickel ore to China last year from its operations in Dinagat Island.

NiHAO said it booked consolidated net income of P24 million in the first nine months of 2011.