Plains All American secures $357.23 million from stock sale; DCP to close $130 million PIPE

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, June 20 - Two rather large offerings, both from oil and natural gas acquisition companies, led private placement news on Wednesday.

Plains All American Pipeline, LP secured $357.228 million from a registered direct placement, and DCP Midstream Partners, LP entered agreements for a $130 million stock sale.

In the Plains offering, the company plans to sell 6.3 million limited partnership units at $59.56 each to 13 institutional investors led by GPS Partners LLC. The unit price is a 3% discount to the company's $61.40 closing unit price on Monday.

The units will be sold under the company's shelf registration.

The offering is expected to close by the end of the month.

On Wednesday, Plains All American Pipeline's stock gave up 28 cents, or 0.44%, to end at $62.97 (Nasdaq: PAA).

Proceeds to be used for growth

"This transaction is consistent with our overall capital structure maintenance activities as we continue to expand our merchant function and implement our portfolio of capital projects, while simultaneously remaining focused on our ultimate credit ratings objectives," said Greg Armstrong, the company's chief executive officer, in a statement.

"A portion of the proceeds from this transaction will be used to fund the closing of the Bumstead LPG storage facility acquisition as well as our ongoing expansion capital projects and the balance will be used to reduce our short-term inventory-related borrowings. We believe this equity issuance will increase our financial flexibility by pre-funding future expansion capital projects and enable us to move quickly if attractive acquisition opportunities arise."

Plains All American wrapped a $300 million registered direct offering of limited partnership units. The company sold 6,163,960 units at $48.67 each to a large group of institutional investors led by Royal Bank of Canada.

Houston-based Plains All American is an oil, refined products and liquefied petroleum gas transportation, storage and marketing company.

DCP secures $130 million

In the DCP offering, the company agreed to sell 3,005,780 limited partnership units at $43.25 each to a group of institutional investors.

Proceeds from the offering, which is set to close on June 22, will be used to repay debt related to the company's acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., an Oklahoma-based natural gas gathering company.

The stock gained $1.07, or 2.43%, to settle at $45.10 (NYSE: DPM) on Wednesday.

Denver-based DCP is a midstream natural gas and gas liquids gathering, processing, transporting and marketing company.

Oil dives

The two energy-related offerings come on the heels of recent climbs in oil prices. Prices on Wednesday, however, went southward, losing $1.35 to end at $67.75 per barrel. On Tuesday, prices jumped up to $69 per barrel.

"Oil deals tend to be pushed by prices," said one market source. "When oil climbs, generally you see more. It's not a hard and fast rule. Oil had been off for a while and energy deals kind of fell off the radar."

Micromet raises $25.32 million

Moving to the biotech sector, Micromet, Inc. is gearing up to wrap a $25.323 million private placement.

Word of the deal sent the company's stock down 4.46%, or 12 cents, to end the session at $2.57 (Nasdaq: MITI).

A group of institutional investors plans to buy 9.2 million limited partnership units at $2.7525 each.

The investors also will receive warrants for 4.6 million shares, exercisable at $3.09 each for five years.

RBC Capital Markets was the lead agent.

Based in Bethesda, Md., Micromet is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for cancer, inflammatory diseases and autoimmune diseases.

3D Systems closes deal

In the tech sector, 3D Systems Corp. sealed a $21.875 million private placement of stock.

A group of investors led by T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Value Fund, Ltd. bought 1.25 million shares at $17.50 each.

Canaccord Adams, Inc. and Johnson Rice & Co., LLC were the placement agents.

Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes as well as for growth initiatives, including the launch of the company's V-Flash 3-D Modeler.

"We are pleased to be taking another significant step toward the achievement of our longer-term growth initiatives and a more immediate step in the commercialization of our previously announced V-Flash desktop modeler," said Abe Reichental, the company's CEO, in a statement.

"This transaction presented us with an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen our balance sheet and provides us with additional liquidity to support other key growth initiatives."

On Wednesday, the company's stock closed down 4.64%, or $1.16, to close at $23.83 (Nasdaq: TDSC).

Located in Rock Hill, S.C., 3D Systems provides three-dimensional modeling, rapid prototyping and manufacturing services.

ERF obtains $10 million equity line

In other tech news, ERF Wireless Inc. closed a $10 million investment agreement with Dutchess Private Equities Fund Ltd.

The agreement was announced Wednesday morning and the company's stock took off, gaining 23.53%, or 4 cents, to settle at $0.21 (OTCBB: ERFW).

Under the three-year agreement, Dutchess may buy shares at a 7% discount to market price.

"The investment agreement with Dutchess will give us the option to internally finance the rapid-growth currently being experienced across our operating business segments when other forms of financing may not be readily available," said H. Dean Cubley, ERF's CEO, in a news release.

"It also gives us the option to use this financing to accelerate anticipated acquisitions of additional wireless broadband assets and operations. This is all part of our strategy to match our current fixed revenue growth with a comparable amount of recurring revenue."

Based in League City, Texas, ERF is a wireless and broadband products and services provider.

Reed's stock climbs

A day after wrapping the second tranche of an $8.971 million PIPE, Reed's Inc.'s stock jumped by 5.83%.

The stock gained 44 cents to close at $7.99 (OTCBB: REED). On Tuesday, the stock jumped by 11.85%, or 80 cents, to end at $7.55.

Volume remained elevated with 96,106 shares traded compared with the average 18,891 shares. On Tuesday, 64,172 shares were traded.

In the placement, the company sold units of one share and one warrant at $6.00 each.

Los Angeles-based Reed's develops a line of ice creams, candies and non-alcoholic beverages.

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