Manulife to raise C$1.13 billion; Micromet triples facility; Crowflight, Atlanta Gold plan deals

By Kenneth Lim

Boston, Dec. 2 - Manulife Financial Corp. led the PIPEs market on Tuesday with plans to raise C$1.125 billion through a private placement of common stock and could take in a further C$1 billion through a public offering.

Micromet, Inc. tripled the size of an equity financing facility to $75 million on the back of a recent $40 million stock placement.

Crowflight Minerals Inc. plans to sell C$4.25 million of stock through a private flow-through placement to fund exploration activities.

Separately, Atlanta Gold Inc. will seek C$2.5 million through a hard financing deal to explore a property in Idaho.

Manulife eyes C$2.13 billion

Manulife said it is boosting its financial position with a C$1.125 billion private stock placement and a C$1 billion public share offering.

The shares in both offerings will be priced at C$19.40 apiece. Manulife, a C$29.7 billion market capitalization company, saw its common stock (TSX: MFC) slip 2.79%, or C$0.57, to close at C$19.89 on Tuesday.

The shares in the private placement will be sold to eight existing institutional investors, who also received a commitment fee equal to 2.062% of their individual commitments.

Manulife, a life insurance company based in Toronto, said it will concurrently reduce a credit facility with Canadian banks announced on Nov. 6 to C$2 billion from C$3 billion. The new capital and reduced loan will give the company a consolidated capital ratio of about 235%.

"This issue of common shares along with the renegotiated credit facilities will noticeably bolster our already strong capital position," Manulife president and chief executive Dominic D'Alessandro said in a statement. "These transactions provide us with the flexibility to absorb the accounting impact of future volatility in financial markets and, as importantly, will allow us to take advantage of acquisition opportunities that are emerging out of the current industry environment."

The company also guided for a loss in the fourth quarter.

"We are disappointed with this poor performance," D'Alessandro added. "It is primarily due to the unprecedented decline in worldwide equity markets which for the 11 months ended November 30, 2008 are down by 33% in Canada, 39% in the U.S. and by an average of 45% in Asia. However, our business fundamentals continue to be very solid, as evidenced by our strong insurance sales and new business embedded value growth."

Micromet expands facility

Micromet upsized an equity financing facility from Kingsbridge Capital Ltd. to $75 million from $25 million.

The original facility, which settled in August 2006, was not used by Micromet.

The new agreement allows Micromet to draw on the facility over the next three years through the sale of common stock to Kingsbridge. The maximum amount in each drawdown will be $10 million.

Pricing will be at discounts from 6% to 14% to the average market price of Micromet's stock over an eight-day pricing period.

As part of the deal, Kingsbridge also received a warrant to purchase up to 135,000 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $4.44 per share for up to five years.

Micromet common stock (Nasdaq: MITI) closed at $4.00 on Tuesday, lower by 1.23% or $0.05. Micromet has a market capitalization of about $202.74 million.

Micromet is a Carlsbad, Calif., biotechnology company.

The deal comes after Micromet in October raised $40 million from a private placement of its common stock to advance its clinical antibody programs and broaden its pipeline.

"We believe that the closing of our recent $40 million PIPE financing puts us in a strong financial position," Micromet president and chief executive Christian Itin said in a statement. "The expanded CEFF [committed equity financing facility] provides Micromet with additional financial strength and flexibility, which has never been more important than in the current financial environment."

Crowflight to sell stock

Crowflight Minerals plans to place C$4.25 million of its common stock.

The company will sell about 23.615 million flow-through common shares at C$0.18 per share. Crowflight common stock (TSX: CML) closed unchanged at C$0.155 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of C$41.8 million.

The deal has a C$2.75 million greenshoe.

Proceeds will be used for exploration.

Crowflight is a resource exploration company based in Toronto.

"The proceeds of the flow-through financing will be used primarily for the continued development of the main access ramp from surface to the 1,000 foot level which is expected to connect in June of 2009," said Crowflight president and chief executive Mike Hoffman in a press release. "The main ramp will facilitate access to multiple mining areas and allow operational flexibility for material and personnel transport. In addition, the completion of the ramp offers the potential for future expansion of the mine."

Atlanta Gold to raise C$2.5 million

Atlanta Gold plans to raise C$2.5 million through a non-brokered private placement of stock and warrant units.

The company will sell 25 million units at C$0.10 apiece. Each unit consists of one common share and one half-share warrant. Each whole warrant is exercisable at C$0.25 for two years.

Shares of Atlanta Gold (TSX: ATG) gained 30%, or C$0.03, to close at C$0.13. The company's market capitalization is C$3.84 million.

The warrants may expire sooner if the company's shares close at C$0.50 or higher for 20 consecutive days.

Proceeds will be used to explore a gold property in Idaho and for working capital purposes.

Toronto-based Atlanta Gold is a gold exploration company.

"This current financing is critical to allow the company to continue as a going concern and to provide the means to advance the Atlanta gold project toward production," Atlanta Gold president and chief executive Bill Baird in a statement. "The recent global contraction in financial markets has limited capital investment and caused unprecedented challenges for many companies, including Atlanta Gold. This has been particularly frustrating because we have recently achieved several strategic objectives that we believe position the company for success.

"Completion of this financing will permit us to move the Atlanta gold project forward toward production in 2010."

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