EV Energy pockets $98 million from units; Canadian resources offerings dominate market

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Feb. 27 - For the second day in a row, natural resources offerings grabbed private placement headlines as uranium prices remained strong. In the broader market, however, U.S. volume almost ground to a halt as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dove by more than 400 points.

"It's getting hit pretty hard," observed one market source. "I think everyone is taking a few steps back to see what's going to happen in the next few days. I don't necessarily think it's going to keep anyone away for the long term."

The Dow plummeted 416.02 to close at 12,216.24. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq composite index slipped 96.66 to end at 2,407.86 and the Standard & Poor's 500 composite index fell 50.33 to settle at 1,399.04.

EV Energy Partners, LP led PIPE action on Tuesday, settling a $98 million private placement of limited partnership units as oil prices crept over $61 per barrel.

"A lot of these [resources deals] are being pushed through thanks to better oil," said one Vancouver, B.C.-based market source. "Uranium prices are also a good part of it too; we're seeing a lot of uranium offerings."

The company sold 3,935,743 units at $24.90 each to Zimmer Lucas Partners, LP; Alerian Capital Management, LLC; GPS Partners LLC; Lehman Brothers MLP Partners, LP; and Swank Capital, LLC. The price per share is a 5.7% discount to the average closing price of the company's common units for the 10 trading days ended Feb. 23.

Proceeds will be used to repay amounts due under its revolving credit facility.

The company's stock gave up 65 cents, or 2.36%, to close at $26.84 and lost another 10 cents in after-hours trading (Nasdaq: EVEP).

"This transaction, through the timely raising of equity capital to repay our outstanding indebtedness, provides EV Energy Partners with a significant amount of financing capacity to continue to capitalize on future growth opportunities," said chief executive officer John Walker in a statement.

Houston-based EV Energy Partners acquires, produces and develops oil and gas properties.

Triangle raises $20.82 million

In another offering, Triangle Petroleum Corp. raised $20.824 million from a stock offering.

Triangle sold 10.412 million shares at $2.00 apiece.

The proceeds from the offering will be used for the company's Fayetteville drilling programs in Arkansas and other capital expenses.

Capital One Southcoast, Inc. and Pickering Energy Partners Inc. were the placement agents.

"We are pleased that this institutional funding allows us to aggressively explore our 20,000 acres in Conway County, [Ark.], including extensive 3-D seismic programs, vertical test wells and horizontal drilling programs in 2007," said Mark Gustafson, the company's chief executive officer, in a statement. "We wish to personally thank Stan Ellington, Patrick Mooney, Michael Uffman and the rest of the team at Southcoast for their strong efforts to conclude this funding."

Triangle's stock slipped 2 cents to end at $2.68 Tuesday (OTCBB: TPLM).

Calgary, Alta.-based Triangle is an oil and natural gas exploration company.

Southampton plans C$9.6 million deal

Elsewhere in resources, Southampton Ventures Inc. negotiated the terms of a C$9.6 million offering of flow-through and non flow-through units.

The offering sent the company's stock skyrocketing 62.7%, or 42 cents, to close at C$1.09 (TSX Venture: SV).

The deal includes up to 6 million flow-through units at C$0.85 each and up to 6 million non flow-through units at C$0.75 each. The flow-through units are comprised of one share and one half-share warrant with each whole warrant exercisable at C$1.25 for two years.

The non flow-through units also include one share and one half-share warrant and the warrants are exercisable under the same terms.

Pacific International Securities Inc. is the placement agent.

Proceeds will be used for the development and exploration on the Devonian shale hosted nickel-molybdenum-zinc-platinum group elements project owned by Strategic Metals Ltd. Southampton and Strategic have entered into an agreement in which Southampton may earn up to a 100% interest in the project.

Toronto-based Southampton is a mineral exploration company.

Forsys raises C$47.5 million

Moving to those uranium offerings, Forsys Metals Corp. pocketed C$47.5 million from private placement of 10 million shares.

The offering was placed through a syndicate of agents led by Salman Partners Inc .and including Paradigm Capital Inc., Canaccord Capital Corp., Blackmont Capital Inc. and Laurentian Bank Securities Inc.

Proceeds will be used for the development of the Valencia uranium project and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

The company's stock has not moved from C$2.03 since October 2006 (TSX Venture: FSY).

Toronto-based Forsys is a uranium exploration company.

Another uranium company, Titan Uranium Inc., priced a C$9 million offering of units Tuesday morning.

The offering sent to the company's stock sliding early, giving up 14.92%, or 44 cents, by 10 a.m. ET (TSX Venture: TUE). The stock ended the day down 16.95%, or 50 cents, to close at C$2.45.

The units of one flow-through share and one half-share warrant are priced at C$3.00 each. The whole warrants allow for the purchase of another flow-through share at C$3.25 each for two years.

The offering is being placed through agents Pacific International Securities Inc., PowerOne Capital Markets Ltd. and Canaccord Capital Corp.

Proceeds will be used for Canadian exploration expenses.

Located in Saskatoon, Sask., Titan is a uranium exploration company.

Itron stock dips

A day after announcing a $235 million private placement, Itron, Inc.'s stock gave up almost 2.5% on Tuesday.

The stock closed down 2.44%, or $1.63, to end at $65.18 (Nasdaq: ITRI). On Monday, when the deal was announced, the stock gained 4.7%, or $3.00, to close at $66.81.

In the offering, Itron said it plans to sell shares at $57.50 each, a 5% discount to the five-day average closing stock price of $60.52 during the week of Feb. 12. The deal is set to close March 1.

The placement is being conducted as part of Itron's $1.62 billion acquisition of Actaris Metering Systems.

Spokane, Wash.-based Itron develops hardware and software to monitor electricity, gas and water usage for utilities.

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