Bois d'Arc secures $35.87 million from stock sale; Blast Energy pockets $15 million from PIPE

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Aug. 28 - Even as oil prices dove on Monday, two energy names topped private placement activity, led by a $35,865,000 offering announced by Bois d'Arc Energy, Inc.

Oil prices sank by $1.90 to close the session at $70.61 per barrel.

One market source based in Vancouver, B.C., laughed off the drop in oil prices, noting that prices drop every time something significant happens in the news.

"In this case, it's the weather," he said. "The hurricane hasn't even hit yet and already oil is off. I'll wager [oil] prices will turn around by the end of the week, once we see what the storm is going to do."

In the Bois d'Arc offering, the company intends to sell 2.25 million shares at $15.94 each to Comstock Resources, Inc. The price per share was on par with the company's closing stock price on Aug. 25.

The offering is slated to wrap up on Aug. 31.

The proceeds will be used for capital expenditures, including acquisitions of oil and gas properties.

Bois d'Arc also announced on Monday that it intends to buy another 20% working interest in the Ship Shoal 113 Unit for $19.2 million. The acquisition is scheduled to close in September, and some of the proceeds from the private placement will be used for the acquisition.

News of the placement and the proposed acquisition sent the company's stock up by 3.64%, or 58 cents, to close at $16.52 Monday (NYSE: BDE).

Houston-based Bois d'Arc is an oil and natural gas exploration company.

Blast's $15 million deal

Elsewhere in energy-related offerings, Blast Energy Services, Inc. completed a private placement of stock for $15 million as part of its acquisition of Eagle Domestic Drilling Operations, LLC.

The company issued 15 million shares in the deal. The investors also received warrants for 4.95 million shares.

The full terms of the warrants could not determined by press time Monday.

The company also announced Monday that it received a $40.6 million senior debt facility from Laurus Master Fund, Ltd. The three-year facility bears interest at Prime rate plus 250 basis points.

The facility includes warrants equal to 30% of the principal. The terms of warrants could not be determined Monday.

The company plans to use $35 million from the debt facility to pay for the acquisition.

Eagle Domestic, a Texas-based drilling rig contractor, is being purchased from members of a privately held company for $50 million in cash and 1.5 million in Blast stock.

On Monday, the company's stock climbed by 6.21%, or 9 cents, to end the session at $1.54 (OTCBB: BESV).

"This transaction completes the transformation of Blast into a viable operating company in the energy service sector," said John O'Keefe, Blast's chief executive officer, in a news release.

"The new business significantly improves our balance sheet and provides a profitable platform from which to grow the company and allows greater flexibility in the development of our abrasive jetting and satellite business lines. We will now focus on the integration of the existing Eagle drilling operations into Blast and the deployment of the three additional rigs under construction on a timely basis."

Houston-based Blast provides fabricated mobile drilling rigs to the oil and natural gas sector.

VuBotics stock jumps

Moving to the tech sector, VuBotics, Inc. watched its stock skyrocket on Monday after announcing the completion of a $2,219,940 private placement. The stock climbed by 18.92%, or 7 cents, to close at $0.44 (OTCBB: VBTC).

The stock had started to make gains early, advancing by 13.5%, or 5 cents, by 11 a.m. ET.

The jump comes after the company announced it sold 7,399,799 units of one share and one warrant at $0.30 apiece. The warrants are exercisable at $0.60 for five years.

Great American Investors, Inc. and MidSouth Capital, Inc. were the placement agents.

The proceeds will be used for the expansion of the company's licensing program and for working capital.

"Our advanced technology is designed to increase both reading speed and legibility, on a broad range of platforms such as online or mobile phones," VuBotics chairman Phil Lundquist said in a statement. "Given the proliferating use of cell phones for retrieving and reading content, we believe we have a unique business opportunity with our patent-pending technology.

"In order to rapidly expand this market, we are focusing on a licensing model with content providers and [original equipment manufacturers], which we believe will allow faster market penetration and customer adoption. We believe our licensing model, combined with supplemental advertising, present multiple opportunities for rapid and scaleable revenue growth. We also believe our technology makes possible a new world of advertising adaptable to almost any size screen with the ability to extract real-time metrics unavailable until now.

"With this financing in place, we have strengthened our working capital position to support the acceleration of our sales and marketing strategy."

Atlanta-based VuBotics develops software used for providing text for online, small screen and broadcast applications.

Polaris leads Canadian PIPEs

Heading to the Canadian PIPE market, Polaris Geothermal Inc. led activity there, pricing a private placement of units for up to C$12 million.

The placement includes up to 9.6 million units at C$1.25 each.

The units comprise one class A share and one half-share warrant. Each whole warrant is exercisable at C$1.65 for 18 months.

Dundee Securities Corp. is the placement agent.

Proceeds will be used for the company's San Jacinto-Tizate geothermal project in Nicaragua, for debt repayment and for general corporate purposes.

The company's stock gained 4.17%, or 5 cents, to close at C$1.25 (TSX Venture: GEO).

Toronto-based Polaris develops renewable geothermal power plans.

Continental Minerals stock slips

A day after announcing its plans to close an $11.5 million private placement of convertible promissory notes, Continental Minerals Corp.'s stock slipped Monday.

The company's stock dipped by 2.53%, or 4 cents, to close at C$1.54 (TSX Venture: KMK). When the deal was announced Friday, the stock gained 3.27%, or 5 cents, to close at C$1.58.

In the placement, Continental agreed to sell the 16% notes to Taseko Mines Ltd. The notes are convertible into common shares at $2.05 for the first six months and at $2.25 for the second six months, plus a 5% premium.

Vancouver, B.C.-based Continental is a mineral exploration and development company focused on copper-gold projects in Tibet.

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