Plains All American raises $300 million; Nova Biosource preps $47.09 million stock sale

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Dec. 20 - Two energy-related companies headed up a particularly active session for private placements Wednesday.

Plains All American Pipeline, LP returned to the market with an offering of almost $300 million.

The company sold 6,163,960 limited partnership units at $48.67 apiece to a group of institutional investors led by Royal Bank of Canada. The price is a 9.4% discount to the company's $53.75 closing stock price on Tuesday.

The units were sold under the company's shelf registration.

News of the offering, released late Wednesday, sent the company's stock down 39 cents to settle at $54.14 (NYSE: PAA).

This isn't the first time Plains has tapped the PIPE market. Back in July, the company sold 3.7 million units at $43.00 each for $159.1 million in a registered direct offering. The units in that deal were sold at a 4% discount to the company's July 18 closing stock price.

Of the investors in Wednesday's offering, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors and Tortoise Capital Advisors are returning investors from the July placement.

Houston-based Plains All American develops and operates natural gas storage facilities.

Nova Biosource's deal

Elsewhere in the energy sector, Nova Biosource Fuels, Inc. plans to seal a $47.092 million private placement Thursday.

A group of institutional and other investors agreed to purchase 24.4 million shares at $1.93 each and will receive warrants for 7.3 million shares. The warrants are exercisable at $2.72 each for five years.

After the deal was announced Wednesday morning, the company's stock slipped by 7 cents, or 3.15%, to close at $2.15 (OTCBB: NYBF).

Jefferies & Co., Inc. was the lead agent.

Proceeds will be used for the company's business strategy to build and operate two to four biodiesel refineries with a capacity of 120 million to 240 million gallons of biodiesel per year. The rest will be used for working capital.

Nova, also based in Houston, develops renewable fuel products.

Favrille leads biotech deals

Moving on over to the active biotech sector, Favrille, Inc. led a particularly strong day for the sector, announcing the completion of a $40 million committed equity financing facility with Kingsbridge Capital Ltd.

Kingsbridge agreed to buy shares over the next three years at between 90% and 94% of the volume weighted average price of the company's stock over an eight-day pricing period. The minimum acceptable price per share is the greater of $1.75 or 90% of the VWAP over the eight-day pricing period.

Kingsbridge received warrants for 250,000 shares, exercisable at $3.98 each for five years.

On Wednesday, Favrille's stock gave up 13 cents, or 4.76%, to settle at $2.60 (Nasdaq: FVRL).

San Diego-based Favrille develops treatments for cancer and immune system disorders.

Another big biotech offering came from Medicure Inc., which secured $20.28 million a stock offering.

U.S.-based institutional investors agreed to buy 15.6 million shares at $1.30 each from the Canadian company.

The investors will receive warrants for 3.1 million shares, exercisable at $1.70 each for five years.

The deal is scheduled to close within the coming days.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. was the lead agent.

Proceeds will be used for the ongoing development of the company's lead clinical product, MC-1. The rest will be used for general corporate purposes.

The company's stock gave up 9 cents, or 6.62%, on Wednesday to close at $1.27 but gained 2 cents in after-hours trading (Amex: MCU).

Based in Winnipeg, Man., Medicure develops treatments for cardiovascular disorders.

GenVec's $19.7 million deal

Elsewhere in biotech, GenVec, Inc. received agreements for a $19.7 million registered direct placement of its stock.

News of the deal, however, sent the company's stock way down. On the day, the stock fell more than 16%, or 41 cents, to end at $2.15 (Nasdaq: GNVC). In after-hours trading, the stock rebounded only slightly, gaining a penny.

The company plans to sell 9,609,757 shares at $2.05 each to a group of institutional investors. The shares will be sold under the company's shelf registration.

Rodman & Renshaw, LLC is the bookrunner for the deal, which is set to close Thursday.

Proceeds will be used for research and development, clinical trials of product candidates, the discovery of new product candidates, capital expenditures and general corporate purposes.

Based in Gaithersburg, Md., GenVec develops novel gene-based therapeutic drugs and vaccines.

Beijing Med-Pharm's PIPE

Finally, Beijing Med-Pharm Corp. rounded out the biotech offerings announced Wednesday with its own $14,999,877 private placement.

The company sold 3,333,306 shares at $4.50 each to an investment group that included Abacus Investments Ltd., Strata Capital Management and Ashford Capital Management.

"The enthusiasm of these investors highlights our success in implementing a unique business model for the introduction of Western pharmaceuticals in China and, as a result, attracting a growing number of significant industry partners," said David Gao, the company's chief executive officer, in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. "The funds from this financing will move us closer to completing our Chinese distribution network and allow us to investigate additional product licensing opportunities for our portfolio of high-value proprietary products."

The investors also received warrants for 666,611 shares, exercisable at $5.625 each for five years.

Philadelphia Brokerage Corp. was the placement agent.

The offering sent the company's stock up 3.93%, or 21 cents, to close at $5.55 (Nasdaq: BJGP).

Based in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., Beijing Med-Pharm is a pharmaceutical marketing company focused on clinical trial management, pharmaceutical distribution to hospitals and pharmaceutical marketing to physicians, hospitals and health care providers in China.

Ants raises $11 million

In the tech sector, Ants Software, Inc. settled an $11 million offering of 220 units at $50,000 each.

Each unit includes 14,285 shares and a convertible promissory note in principal of $25,000.

So far, the company has received $1 million in proceeds from the deal and expects to receive another $1 million within seven days. The remaining $9 million will be funded in January.

The 10% note is due in two years and is convertible into common shares at $2.00 each. The note may be prepaid at par plus interest without penalty.

Proceeds will be used for working capital.

The company's stock fell by 3 cents to end at $2.35 Wednesday (OTCBB: ANTS).

Based in Burlingame, Calif., Ants develops database management systems.

Cascades' C$50 million offering

Looking to Canadian offerings, Cascades Inc. wrapped up a C$50 million private placement of subscription receipts as part of its acquisition of 50% interest in Norampac Inc. from Domtar Ltd.

The company sold 3,773,585 subscription receipts at C$13.25 each.

The receipts are exchangeable for common shares on a one-for-one basis once the acquisition is completed on Dec. 29.

Separately, the company closed a C$200,008,750 offering of 15.095 million subscription receipts. The receipts have the same terms as the receipts sold in the private placement.

The C$200,008,750 offering was underwritten by a syndicate led by CIBC World Markets Inc., National Bank Financial Inc. and Scotia Capital Inc.

On Wednesday, Cascade's stock edged up 3 cents to close at C$13.17 (Toronto: CAS).

Based in Kingsey Falls, Quebec, Cascades produces paper products made from recycled materials.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.