PIPE volume holds steady as stocks gain ground; Conceptus prices $23 million stock offering

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Aug. 9 - Private placement volume held its own on Tuesday as stocks closed higher, sending in a new slate of biotech offerings from the United States and a few resources deals from Canada.

"It's totally the opposite of yesterday," said one market source. "Stocks were off early, so issuers held back [Monday]. But today, those issuers who had postponed their deals got them out there once stocks went back up [later in the day]."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 78.74 to end at 10,615.67, the Nasdaq composite index closed up 9.80 at 2,174.19, and the S&P 500 ended the day up 8.25 at 1,231.38.

Biotechnology companies continued to put out private placements Tuesday, fueled by a demand from investors that began late last week and surged on Monday.

Conceptus, Inc. led those offerings on Monday, announcing its plans to raise $23 million from the sale of 3.2 million shares at $7.20 each for institutional investors and $8.00 each for directors and officers of the company.

After the offering was announced early Tuesday afternoon, Conceptus's stock gained 5.62%, or $0.45, to end at $8.45.

As of July 26, the company had 25,733,941 outstanding common shares. Once the deal closes, Conceptus will have 28.9 million outstanding common shares.

The company posted net losses of $6,031,000 for the quarter ended March 31, compared to net losses of $6,181,000 for the corresponding period in 2004.

Based in San Carlos, Calif., Conceptus makes a form of permanent, noninvasive birth control.

Celsion raises $15 million

Another biotech company, Celsion Corp. based out of Columbia, Md., also received a capital infusion from the PIPE market on Tuesday.

Celsion received a $15 million convertible loan from Boston Scientific Corp.

The loan bears interest at the Prime rate plus 100 basis points, matures on Feb. 20, 2009 and is convertible into common shares at $0.61 each.

"We are very pleased to have entered into this financing agreement, which we believe is a reflection of Boston Scientific's satisfaction with the progress that has been made with Prolieve," said company chief executive officer Lawrence Olanoff in a statement. "Based on current plans, we feel that this financing should be sufficient to bridge us through to the exercise of Boston Scientific's option to purchase the Prolieve assets or progress on our other development programs, which could open up other funding opportunities."

Celsion develops treatments for cancer using focused-heat energy.

The company's stock gained $0.02 to end at $0.43 Tuesday.

Camtek closes $5 million loan

Migdal Haemek, Israel-based Camtek Ltd. has closed a private placement of a convertible loan for $5 million, the company reported Tuesday.

The company sold the five-year loan to Fimi Opportunity Fund LP and Fimi Israel Opportunity Fund LP.

The loan bears interest at Libor plus 210 basis points and is convertible into common shares at $5.50 each.

"We are excited about this opportunity to share Camtek's future prosperity, as we have a strong belief in Camtek and in the outstanding opportunity presented by Camtek's new systems for the semiconductor manufacturing and packaging industries," said Ishay Davidi, Fimi's chief executive officer, in a statement. "We believe that these systems are becoming strong growth engines for Camtek."

Camtek's stock gained $0.12 to end at $3.73 but lost $0.02 in after-hours trading.

Camtek designs, develops, manufactures and markets automatic optical inspection systems.

Ember leads Canadian offerings

Moving to Canada, Ember Resources Inc. led a slate of Canadian natural resource offerings Tuesday with its C$50.05 million stock offering.

The company said it plans to sell 7 million shares at C$7.15 each through a syndicate of underwriters led by FirstEnergy Capital Corp. and GMP Securities Inc.

Proceeds will be used for drilling on the company's Mannville properties and for development drilling on its Horseshoe Canyon properties.

The deal was announced Tuesday morning, and Ember's stock gained C$0.38 to close at C$7.65.

Based in Calgary, Alta., Ember is a coal bed methane exploration company.

Titanium prices C$23.8 million deal

After announcing it as a C$35 million offering last month, Titanium Corp. Inc. priced a scaled-down version of the deal for C$23,875,000.

The Toronto-based mineral exploration company plans to sell 10,611,112 units at C$2.25 each.

The units consist of one share and one warrant. The warrants allow for the purchase of another share at C$3.25 each for two years.

"This marks yet another important milestone for Titanium Corp. and its shareholders," said Scott Nelson, the company's president and chief executive officer, in a statement. "These funds will result in a strengthening of our balance sheet, allowing the company to advance its business plan.

"The commercial processing facility to be constructed with these proceeds will be capable of expansion to its full capacity by future project financing. We look forward to enhancing shareholder value as Titanium Corp. works toward realization of its ultimate goal of producing titanium and zircon from Canada's oil sands."

BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. leads a syndicate of placement agents on the offering.

The proceeds for construction expenses related to its Oil Sands project. The remainder will be used for general corporate purposes.

The company's stock closed down C$0.03 to end at C$2.15.

Kirkland Lake prices C$5 million offering

Moving to gold, Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. priced a C$5 million offering of units Tuesday, one of several gold companies in the market this week.

The company plans to sell up to 1.25 million units at C$4.00 each.

The units consist of one share and one half-share warrant. The whole warrants allow for an additional share at C$4.60 each for nine months.

Proceeds from the deal will be used for the development and exploration of the company's mining properties.

Kirkland Lake is based in Kirkland Lake, Ont. Its stock remained unchanged at C$3.90 Tuesday.

Genta's stock edges up

A day after announcing its $17.5 million direct offering, Genta Inc.'s stock made a slight comeback Tuesday.

The Berkeley Heights, N.J.-based biopharmaceutical company's stock gained $0.02 to end at $1.05 and gained another $0.03 in after-hours trading.

When the offering was announced Monday, the company's stock slid more than 15%, losing $0.19 to close at $1.03.

In the financing, Genta sold stock at $0.92 each.

Genta is focused on treatments for cancer.

© 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.