Black Hills secures $150.15 million from stock sale; Delphi Energy plans C$18 million offering

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Feb. 15 - Black Hills Corp. plans to settle a $150,152,076 private placement, heading up private placement activity Thursday.

The offering comes just days after news that Aquila Inc. plans to acquire Great Plains Energy Inc. in a $1.7 billion cash and stock deal. That acquisition was contingent upon a $940 million asset sale to Black Hills.

The three companies are involved in a two-fold transaction, part of which includes Black Hills' purchase of Aquila's electric and gas utility operations in Colorado and other utility assets in three other states for $940 million.

Under the PIPE terms, Black Hills secured agreements from institutional investors for the sale of 4,170,891 shares at $36.00 each. The price per share is an 8% discount to the company's $39.10 closing stock price on Wednesday.

The deal was slated to close Feb. 22

Proceeds will be used to reduce debt.

Credit Suisse and BMO Capital Markets are the agents for the deal.

On Thursday, the company's stock dipped $1.52, or 3.9%, to end at $37.58 (NYSE: BKH).

Based in Rapid City, S.D., Black Hills provides electric utility service to western South Dakota, northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana.

Delphi's offering

Moving north of the border, Delphi Energy Corp. proposed a C$18,007,500 private placement of flow-through stock.

The offering comes as oil closed off just a penny at $57.99 per barrel.

The slight movement in oil prices led one sell-side market source to believe that oil may make a comeback again in the coming days.

"We're waiting to see what news does to it," he said. "If it stabilizes, we could see more [energy offerings]. There is a market for them, for certain. Investors are eager for them, we feel."

The deal includes up to 7.35 million shares at C$2.45 each.

Proceeds will be used fore exploration on the company's oil and gas properties.

The deal is set to settle on March 1.

The placement is being offered through a syndicate led by Scotia Capital Inc. and Orion Securities Inc.

Delphi's stock gave up 9 cents Thursday to close at C$1.86 (Toronto: DEE).

Calgary, Alta.-based Delphi is an oil and natural gas exploration, production and development company.

Exco's stock dips

A day after announcing a planned $2 billion private placement of convertible preferred stock, Exco Resources, Inc. saw its stock slip on Thursday.

The stock gave up 51 cents, or 2.82%, to close at $17.59 (NYSE: XCO). On Wednesday, when the offering was announced, the stock closed unchanged at $18.10.

The placement includes up to $400 million in 6% cumulative convertible perpetual preferreds and up to $1.6 billion in 11% cumulative preferreds.

The 6% preferreds are convertible at $20.00 each.

The 11% preferreds automatically convert into common shares once shareholders approve the issuance of underlying common shares. Exco's shareholders are set to discuss the approval at a meeting in the third quarter.

Proceeds will be used for the acquisition of oil and natural gas properties in the Vernon and Ansley fields in Louisiana from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. The rest will be used to repay outstanding debt of subsidiary Exco Partners Operating Partners, LP.

Dallas-based Exco is an oil and natural gas exploration, acquisition, development and production company.

Acero-Martin plans deal

Elsewhere in natural resources sector, Acero-Martin Exploration Inc. announced its plans to conduct a brokered and non-brokered private placement with both deals totaling C$8 million.

In the brokered deal, which is being conducted through Union Securities Ltd., the company plans to sell up to 12 million units of one share and one warrant at C$0.50 each.

The warrants are exercisable at C$0.75 each for one year.

In the non-brokered portion, the company plans to sell up to 4 million units under the same terms.

Proceeds from both deals will be used for exploration and development on the company's Pinaya gold-copper projects in southern Peru and for working capital.

The stock gave up 4 cents Thursday to end at C$0.50 (TSX Venture: ASD).

Vancouver, B.C.-based Acero-Martin is a mineral exploration company.

In another mineral-related offering, True North Gems Inc. priced a C$5.5 million offering of 10 million units.

The units include one share and one half-share warrant, the whole of which is exercisable at C$0.70 each for two years.

Dundee Securities Corp. is the placement agent for that offering and has a greenshoe for up to 2.5 million additional units.

The stock dropped by 2 cents Thursday to settle at C$0.58 (TSX Venture: TGX).

Based in Vancouver, B.C., True North is a precious gems exploration company.

Feel Good Cars raises C$10 million

Elsewhere in Canadian PIPEs news, Feel Good Cars Corp. wrapped a C$10 million offering.

The company sold 3,773,585 shares at C$2.65 each.

Placement agent Paradigm Capital Inc. has a greenshoe for up to 377,345 additional shares.

Proceeds will be used to repay short-term loans and future milestone payments to EEStor, Inc. The rest will be used for product development, working capital and general corporate purposes.

"The company is very pleased with how investors have demonstrated their support of our plans to develop zero-emission vehicles," said Ian Clifford, the company's CEO, in a news release. "A number of existing investors have increased their participation and we are very pleased to welcome new Canadian and U.S. institutional investors who participated in this offering."

On Thursday, the company's stock slipped by 4 cents to end at C$2.75 (TSX Venture: ZNN).

Located in Toronto, Feel Good Cars, doing business as ZENN Motor Co., develops zero-emission transportation products, including an electric vehicle.

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