Standard Uranium pockets $7 million in convertibles; Parafin wraps $6 million stock offering

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Feb. 10 - PIPE offerings were led Friday by a $7 million convertible debenture deal from Standard Uranium Inc. and a $6 million stock sale closed by Parafin Corp.

In the Standard Uranium deal, Energy Metals Corp. bought 4% debentures due in three years. The debentures are convertible into common shares at $1.45 each.

The company's stock slipped Friday after the closing was announced late Thursday night, dropping 5 cents, or 1.92%, to end at C$2.55 (TSX Venture: URN).

Completion of the offering comes just a week after International Uranium Corp. exercised warrants for 900,000 shares at C$0.48 each. Before the exercise of the warrants, International Uranium owned 900,000 shares of Standard. With the acquisition, the company now holds 11.7% of the Standard Uranium's outstanding shares.

Vancouver, B.C.-based Standard is a uranium exploration company.

Elsewhere in PIPEs Friday, Parafin Corp.'s stock leapt 32.84% after it closed a $6 million stock deal with Rukos Security Advice AG.

Rukos bought 30 million shares.

As of June 30, 2005, Parafin had 58,350,293 common shares. However, following the company's recently concluded a 10-for-1 reverse stock split, the company had 5,837,029 shares.

News of the closing was released Friday afternoon, sending the company's stock skyrocketing 9 cents to end the day at $0.36 (OTCBB: PFNC).

On Friday, the company also announced the exercise of stock options for 13.5 million shares by eight employees.

Also, Rukos exercised an option for 15 million shares at a nickel each.

Looking to the company's earnings, Parafin reported a net loss of $463,392 for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, compared with a net loss of $202,326 for the same quarter of 2004.

Based in San Diego, Parafin had previously been an oil and natural gas exploration company, but the company presently does not have any operations.

Volume improves, sellsider says

In the broader PIPE market, one sellsider said Friday that even though activity was light as the week wound down, volume in general has picked up in the United States compared to earlier in the year.

"Things are definitely getting busier," he said. "Stocks have been getting stronger over the past few days, so that makes things better. Oil has been going down for the most part so that's helping push things. I think volume looks strong. The one thing that may get us in the coming week is earnings. Lots of folks are just pulling earnings stuff together."

Stocks continued to advance Friday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing 35.70 to end at 10,919.05; the Nasdaq composite index moved ahead 6.01 to close at 2,261.88, and the Standard & Poor's 500 composite index gained 3.21 to close at 1,266.99.

Cel-Sci to close $1 million offering

In the biotech sector, Cel-Sci Corp. sold to a single investor $1 million in stock.

The investor bought 2.5 million shares and received warrants for 750,000 shares, exercisable at $0.56 each for five years.

The company's stock gained 4%, or 2 cents, to end at $0.52 Friday (Amex: CVM).

Cel-Sci lowered the strike price of 441,176 warrants issued in a previous PIPE to $0.56 and extended the maturity to Dec. 1, 2007 from Dec. 1, 2006.

Cel-Sci, based in Vienna, Va., develops treatments for cancer and infectious diseases.

Augusta heads up Canadian PIPEs

Augusta Resource Corp. led private placement activity in Canada Friday, pricing a C$35,055,000 offering of special warrants.

The company plans to sell up to 17.1 million special warrants at C$2.05 apiece. The special warrants are exchangeable on a one-for-one basis for units of one share and one half-share warrant once a prospectus covering the underlying shares is declared effective.

The whole warrants are exercisable at C$3.10 each for the first year and at C$4.10 each for the second year.

The stock slipped 2 cents, or 0.97%, to end at C$2.04 Friday (TSX Venture: ARS).

A syndicate of agents led by Salman Partners Inc. and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. has an over-allotment option for up to 1.71 million special warrants.

The deal is expected to close March 9.

Proceeds will be used for the acquisition of the Rosemont property in Arizona. The rest will be used for working capital.

Augusta, based in Vancouver, B.C., is a mineral exploration company.

Also in Canada, Madalena Ventures Inc. planned a C$6 million stock deal. The offering, being placed through Canaccord Capital Corp., includes up to 12 million shares.

Proceeds will be used for exploration on the company's oil and natural gas projects and for working capital.

On Friday, the company's stock gained 1 cent to end at C$0.56 (CNQ: MAVI).

Based in Vancouver, B.C., Madalena is an oil and natural gas exploration and development company.

VaxGen stock loses 3%

VaxGen, Inc.'s stock slipped on Friday after the company completed its previously announced $26.95 million private placement.

VaxGen's stock fell 30 cents, or 3.16%, to close at $9.20 (Pink Sheets: VXGN). On Thursday, when the placement was first announced, the company's stock advanced 2.15%.

The company intends to sell shares at $7.70 each, a 19% discount to the company's closing stock price of $9.50 on Thursday.

One market source who saw the placement said the offering was priced way too low.

"Look at the discount," he said. "I'm surprised their stock didn't lose more, quite frankly. VaxGen is a pretty solid company, so I don't think that has anything to do with it. I just think they pretty much gave those shares away."

Punk, Ziegel & Co. was the placement agent.

Brisbane, Calif.-VaxGen is a biopharmaceutical company focused on treatments for human infectious diseases like smallpox and anthrax.

American Vanguard stock dips

American Vanguard, which settled a $23.4 million direct offering, saw its stock settle lower Friday.

The company's stock closed off 1%, or 26 cents, to end at $25.69 Friday (Amex: AVD).

The stock fell 0.5% Thursday when the closing was announced.

A group of institutional investors purchased shares at $22.50 each.

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

Based in Newport Beach, Calif., American Vanguard develops products used for crop protection and management.

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