Center Bancorp raises $20 million in stock offering; oil companies return to PIPE market

By Sheri Kasprzak

Atlanta, June 30 - Center Bancorp, Inc. led private placement news Thursday with the closing of its $20 million stock offering.

Union, N.J.-based Center sold 1,904,761 shares at $10.50 each.

The proceeds will be used to expand the company's capital position and make bank and non-bank acquisitions. The remainder will be use for working capital.

Center is a holding company for Union Center National Bank.

The company's stock closed unchanged at $11.35 on Thursday.

In the broader private placement market Thursday, sell-siders said energy companies dominated PIPE issuance, offering up deals even as oil prices continued to drop.

"Most of these [companies] are getting their offerings out there before oil prices drop by too much," said one sell-sider. "News has been steadily pushing prices down this week and most of these deals were sparked by the price levels we saw last week."

Another sell-side source, however, disagreed with that notion.

"It has absolutely nothing to do with falling oil," said another sell-side source. "What we're seeing today is just a sort of delayed reaction to those prices over $60 [per barrel]. It's really ridiculous to say that energy companies are putting out deals because oil prices dropped."

That sell-sider contends that in the coming days, energy deals in the PIPE market will likely drop off until there's another comeback in oil prices.

Oil continued to fall Thursday, dropping $0.76 to close at $56.50. Prices have been pushed down during the latter half of this week on news that world crude oil supplies may be increasing. On Monday, though, oil prices reached record highs - something some sell-siders say is why there were so many PIPE offerings to begin with.

West Energy completes C$10 million

Leading the private placement news among energy companies was a C$10 million offering closed by West Energy Ltd.

West, a Calgary, Alta.-based oil and natural gas exploration company, sold 1.6 million flow-through shares at C$6.25 each in a deal sold through a syndicate of placement agents led by GMP Securities Ltd.

The proceeds will be used for ongoing exploration in the Pembina Nisku area.

After the deal was announced late Wednesday, West's stock dropped C$0.20 to end at C$4.75 Thursday.

Another Calgary-based energy company, Veteran Resources Inc., announced its plans to raise C$4.65 million in a flow-through shares offering.

The deal includes 3 million flow-through shares at C$1.55 each.

That deal is being placed through agent Canaccord Capital Corp.

The proceeds from the offering will be used for an exploration program on the Peace River Arch focus area and for continued exploration on its current properties.

Veteran's stock closed down C$0.06 at C$1.24 Thursday.

TG World Energy Corp., yet another Calgary-based energy company, arranged a unit offering of up to C$2 million and at least C$1.5 million.

That offering includes up to 2,857,142.857 units and at least 2,142,857.143 units at C$0.70 each.

The units are comprised of one share and one half-share warrant. The whole warrants provide for an additional share at C$0.85 each for the first year and C$1 each for the second year.

On Thursday, TG's stock gained C$0.03 to close at C$0.85.

Canaccord Capital Corp. is the placement agent.

The company will use the proceeds will be used for working capital and expenses related to the company's interest in the Tenere concessions in Niger.

Internationally, Lysaker, Norway-based Northern Oil ASA announced the closing of its NOK107.45 million private placement of stock and London-based PetroWorld Corp. priced a £6,562,500 private placement of units.

NSP wraps C$8.03 million deals

NSP Pharma Corp. said Thursday it has completed three private placements for C$8.03 million, selling a total of 3,030,190 shares at C$2.65 each.

Octagon Capital Corp. was the lead placement agent.

Toronto-based NSP develops anti-aging skincare products. The company plans to use the proceeds will be used for new advertising campaigns, the development of new products lines, working capital and general corporate purposes.

Acacia's direct placement of CombiMatrix's shares

Moving to direct placements, Newport Beach, Calif.-based Acacia Research Corp. has arranged a direct offering of CombiMatrix Corp.'s shares for $2,925,999.

A group of institutional investors is expected to buy 1,300,444 shares of CombiMatrix at $2.25 each.

The shares are being sold under Acacia's shelf registration.

"This financing further strengthens our balance sheet and provides additional capital to fund our entry into the molecular diagnostics market, which began with our recent formation of CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics," said Amit Kumar, CombiMatrix's president and chief executive officer. "The financing will also support our long-term strategy of adding new, innovative products for the research and development markets with our CustomArray product line."

Acacia operates Acacia Technologies Group and CombiMatrix Group. CombiMatrix develops technologies to determine roles of genes, gene mutations and proteins for use in the biotechnology sector.

The company's stock lost $0.09 to close at $2.34 on Thursday.

Auxilium's stock slips

A day after completing a $40.18 million private placement, Auxilium's stock closed slightly lower.

The company's stock dropped $0.13, or 2.65%, to close at $4.77 Thursday.

On Wednesday, when the closing was announced, Auxilium's stock remained unchanged after making early gains.

The company sold shares at $4.90 each.

The Malvern, Pa.-based Auxilium is a pharmaceutical company focused on urology and sexual health products.

Commonwealth Bankshares's stock closes down

Commonwealth Bankshares, Inc.'s stock took a dip Thursday.

The company's stock closed down $0.43, or 2.03%, to end at $20.76.

On Wednesday, the company's stock gained $0.39 to end at $21.19 and on Tuesday, when the company closed a $19.34 million private placement, the company's stock slid $0.19 to close at $20.80.

Commonwealth sold shares at $20 each in a deal placed through agent Anderson & Strudwick, Inc.

The Norfolk, Va.-based Commonwealth Bankshares is a holding company for Bank of the Commonwealth.

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