Aurelian aims for £34.06 million; GenVec to raise $28 million; Island Breeze inks equity line

By Stephanie N. Rotondo

Portland, Ore., Jan. 27 - The PIPEs market was busy during Wednesday's session, as the glut of activity was new deals entering the marketplace.

Aurelian Oil & Gas plc said it would privately sell stock in its effort to raise £34.06 million. The company is conducting the offering at a discount.

GenVec Inc. is seeking $28 million from a registered direct placement. The company intends to use proceeds for clinical trials.

Meanwhile, Island Breeze International Inc. announced it had secured a credit line of up to $10 million. The funding will be used to advance the company's growth strategy.

Worldwide Energy & Manufacturing USA Inc. is meantime aiming to raise $8 million to fund its expansion. As such, the company announced a private placement of equity.

Also, Evergreen Energy Inc. will pocket over $7 million from a direct placement of stock and warrants. The proceeds are intended to help the company restructure its balance sheet.

Aurelian aims for £34.06 million

Aurelian Oil & Gas is looking to raise £34.06 million via a private placement of equity.

The London-based company will sell approximately 106.43 million ordinary shares at 32p per share. The price per share is a 7.20% discount to the stock's closing price as of Jan. 26.

Kulczyk Investments SA has agreed to invest £5.24 million.

Proceeds will be used to install the first well at the company's Siekierki project and for up to seven exploration and appraisal wells in the next two years. The funding will also be used for other exploration and development activities.

"We are delighted with the response that we have received to the placing," Rowen Bainbridge, chief executive officer, commented in a press release. "We have been given a stamp of approval by some of the most informed investors in the oil and gas industry, endorsing both our strategy and the portfolio of assets that we operate.

"We have an extensive work program with the drill bit and these funds will provide us with the ability to deliver this, eliminating any previously perceived funding risks surrounding the company," he concluded.

Aurelian's stock (London: AUL) closed at 37.47p. Market capitalization is £80.4 million.

GenVec to raise $28 million

GenVec announced a $28 million registered direct offering of units.

The company will sell 14 million of the units at $2.00 each. The units will contain one common share and 0.30 warrants. Whole warrants are exercisable at $2.75 for five years.

"GenVec intends to use the proceeds from this offering to complete the development of TNFerade through the filing of a biological license application for TNFerade's use in locally advanced pancreatic cancer, which the company anticipates will take place in 2012," commented Douglas J. Swirsky, senior vice president and chief financial officer, in a press release announcing the deal.

Settlement is expected by Feb. 1.

GenVec's shares (Nasdaq: GNVC) fell 78 cents, or 31.58%, to $1.69. Market capitalization is $189 million.

GenVec is a Gaithersburg, Md.-based developer of novel gene-based therapeutic drugs and vaccines.

Island Breeze inks equity line

Island Breeze International, a Los Angeles-based natural resource explorer focused on Nevada, secured a $10 million line of credit with Auctus Private Equity Fund LLC.

The fund will purchase class A common shares over the course of three years. The price per share will equal 95% of the lowest bidding price of the shares during the five trading days following the drawdown request.

Each draw will be the maximum amount of the greater of $150,000 or 200% of the average daily trading volume during the 10 days preceding the request.

"We are very pleased to welcome Auctus Private Equity Fund as a long term strategic financial partner," said Bradley T. Prader, president and CEO, in a press release. "This facility will provide the company with financial flexibility as we move forward in executing our East Asian plans and begin to launch the company's investor relations program."

Island Breeze's equity (OTCBB: IBII) dropped 22 cents, or 29.33%, to $0.53. Market capitalization is $23.9 million.

Worldwide plans stock sale

Worldwide Energy is seeking $8 million in new capital from a private placement of common stock, the company said in a press release.

The South San Francisco, Calif.-based engineering firm will issue 1.7 million shares at $4.50 each. Investors will also receive warrants for an equal amount of shares, exercisable at $5.65 for five years.

"This institutional financing is a significant event for Worldwide as we continue to grow and expand our PV solar sales and manufacturing facilities," said Jimmy Wang, CEO, in the release.

"We continue to expect our total megawatt shipments in 2010 to be at least 50% greater than what we have shipped in 2009, and we are very pleased with the strong demand we are seeing for our advanced, durable solar modules. This financing will allow us to accelerate our production schedules and increase capacity to meet the growing demand."

In addition to the financing announcement, Worldwide also said that certain company executives had agreed to place a total of 1.7 million common shares in escrow. Those shares are to be distributed to investors on a pro-rata basis should the company not achieve $400,000 EBITDA for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2010.

Worldwide's equity (OTCBB: WEMU) declined by 80 cents, or 14.16%, to $4.85. Market capitalization is $17 million.

Evergreen seeks restructuring funds

Evergreen Energy brought a $7.05 million registered direct offering of equity to market.

Evergreen intends to sell approximately 23.5 million common shares at $0.30 per share. Approximately 11.75 million warrants are also included in the deal.

The warrants are exercisable at $0.3859 for five years.

"This transaction represents an important step in the capital restructuring of Evergreen and our focus on transitioning the company to a pure play strategy featuring our GreenCert solutions," said Tom Stoner, CEO of Evergreen, in a statement. "As such, we are committed to the sale of Buckeye Industrial Mining Co. and executing the spin-off of our K-Fuel operations."

Evergreen's stock (NYSE: EEE) slipped 9 cents, or 23.32%, to $0.2959.

Evergreen Energy is a Denver-based company that refines coal into cleaner solid fuel.

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