Aura Minerals raises C$125 million; Apollo Gold settles; Converted Organics plans direct sale

By Stephanie N. Rotondo

Portland, Ore., July 16 - The private placement market started to wind down Thursday, though the overall size of the deals coming seemed to increase some.

The big deal of the day came from Aura Minerals Inc. The mining company announced it closed a C$125 million placement of subscription receipts. Also, the company said it was planning a stock consolidation.

Meanwhile, Apollo Gold Corp. said it wrapped a C$13 million bought-deal private placement of both common shares and flow-through shares. The company's president and chief executive officer said he was happy with the outcome of the deal, given current market conditions.

Converted Organics Inc. is planning to raise $2 million via a registered direct offering. A company spokesperson said proceeds would be used, in part, to fund expansion.

And, Medoro Resources Ltd. increased a private placement of units that had come to market on July 9. The company now plans to take in C$8.63 million, compared to the original pricing of C$7.5 million.

Aura Minerals raises C$125 million

Aura Minerals raised C$125.13 million from a private placement of subscription receipts, the company announced.

The deal originally priced on June 15 for $100.1 million and included a greenshoe of C$25.03 million.

The Vancouver, B.C.-based company sold 227.5 million subscription receipts at C$0.55 each. Once the funds have been released from escrow, each receipt will automatically convert to a common share.

Proceeds from the deal will be used, in part, to acquire the San Andres Gold Mine in Honduras and the Sao Francisco and Sao Vicente gold mines in Brazil from Yamana Gold Inc. Aura announced the acquisition on June 9.

Also, the company announced that it would consolidate its common shares, giving shareholders one new common share for every five shares held. The consolidation goes into effect July 23.

Calls made to the company seeking comment went unreturned Thursday.

Aura's shares (TSX: ORA) ended unchanged at C$0.60. Market capitalization is C$356 million.

Apollo Gold settles bought deal

Apollo Gold wrapped a C$13 million bought deal, according to a press release.

In the private placement of stock, the company issued approximately 13.89 million flow-through shares at C$0.54 per share and approximately 12.22 million common shares at C$0.45 per share.

The deal originally priced at C$10 million, with a C$3 million greenshoe, on June 26.

"This is not just a Canadian deal," said Dave Russell, Apollo's president and chief executive officer, in an interview with Prospect News. He said that U.S. investors did take part in the common share portion of the deal and also added that the price of the flow-through shares represented a 20% premium.

"We've got a new project that just came into production," he said, referring to one of the uses of the private placement funds. "It looks like a very good exploration project."

"Apollo intends to use the proceeds from the sale of the flow-through shares to incur Canadian Exploration Expenses at its Black Fox project and its Grey Fox property," the company said in the release. "Apollo intends to use the proceeds from the sale of the common shares for working capital and general corporate purposes."

"You always want higher stock prices," Russell remarked about the deal's terms. However, given that the "world is unsure about the market," he considered the deal to be "very straightforward."

"In this case, I was very happy with [the outcome] because the broker was able to find investors that wanted to get involved with Apollo Gold," he said.

To that end, Russell said the deal was oversubscribed by nearly 50%.

"We had about C$18 million in subscriptions," he said, adding that the company ultimately chose to keep the proceeds to C$13 million.

Russell noted that Haywood Securities, along with Blackmont Capital, arranged the deal.

Apollo's equity (TSX: APG) improved by C40.015, or 3.23%, to C$0.48. Market capitalization is C$115 million.

Apollo Gold is a Denver-based gold exploration company.

Converted Organics conducts direct offering

Converted Organics plans to take in $2 million via a registered direct offering, according to a regulatory filing.

Under the terms of the deal, the Boston-based fertilizer producer will sell approximately 1.96 million common shares at $1.02 per share to a single unnamed investor. Warrants good for 585,000 shares will also be included, at a strike price of $1.25 until July 15, 2014.

Jim Blackman, of PR Financial Marketing, said that the company plans to use proceeds for "ongoing operations."

"Some will be used for expansion," he added, noting that the financing was "all in line with money raised in the past."

Settlement is expected by July 16.

Converted Organics' stock (Nasdaq: COIN) dropped 10 cents, or 8.40%, to $1.09. Market capitalization is $17.2 million.

Medoro increases unit sale

Medoro Resources upsized a C$7.5 million private placement of units to C$8.63 million, the company said.

The deal - which originally priced July 9 - will include 34.5 million units, each of which will be sold at C$0.25. Each unit will contain one common share and one warrant exercisable at C$0.50 for two years.

Proceeds will be used to complete due diligence investigations on potential acquisitions in Colombia and for establishing operations at any acquisitions.

"Medoro continues to complete its due diligence investigations relating to the proposed acquisition of Colombia Goldfields Ltd., which remains subject to SEC review and regulatory, shareholder and court approval," the company said in a press release. "It is anticipated that this acquisition, subject to the receipt of the foregoing, will close in the fall. Medoro is also examining other potential acquisition candidates and properties in Colombia, all of which are at the preliminary due diligence stage."

Medoro's stock (TSX.V: MRS) gained 4 cents, or 14.29%, to C$0.32. Market capitalization is C$28.4 million.

Medoro Resources is a Toronto-based gold exploration and development company.

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