U.S. private placements stall on mixed stocks; CancerVax sells $12 million in collaboration

By Sheri Kasprzak

Atlanta, Dec. 16 - Private placement volume in the United States took a dip Thursday on an unstable stock market, while Canadian volume remained solid on strong resources stocks.

"Resources are what is pushing the stock market here," said one Canadian sell-sider. "Resources and tech stocks. Lots of mineral companies in the market with deals."

Resources companies like Red Back Mining Inc. and Mustang Mineral Corp. announced their plans to raise C$11 million and C$1.275 million in private placements, respectively.

In the United States, a mixed stock market may have kept some issuers away.

"Stocks were a little weird today," said one source. "The Dow has been up and the other two are down, and the Dow really didn't make big gains. I just think some issuers may be waiting a little while.

"Of course, there also is the upcoming holiday, which is also going to affect volume. I think there will definitely been a lag in volume probably through Christmas. I don't agree that it will last until the end of the year, but I do think volume will be down through Christmas."

Heading up market action in the United States, Carlsbad, Calif.-based CancerVax raised $12 million through the sale of 1 million shares as part of a collaboration agreement.

Swiss technology company Serono Technologies SA bought the shares at $12 each.

The agreement allows Serono to license certain CancerVax trademarks and patents to develop, manufacture, commercialize and use preventions and treatments for Canvaxin, the company's investigational immunotherapy product.

CancerVax will receive $25 million for the arrangement and may also receive up to $253 million in milestone payments from Serono.

Profits from the sales of Canvaxin will be split between the two companies.

CancerVax is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for cancer.

CancerVax's stock soared $0.96 to close at $10.87 Thursday.

DCI gets $5 million equity line

DCI USA Inc. got a $5 million equity line from Cornell Capital Partners LP.

The company received the standby equity distribution agreement Dec. 13. Cornell will pay 97% of the lowest volume weighted average price of the common stock during the five trading days before the notice date.

The agreement has a ceiling of $125,000 for each transaction and Cornell has no obligation to buy more than $500,000 in any 30-day period.

DCI USA, based in Beavercreek, Ohio, specializes in information systems engineering, design and development.

On Thursday, the company's stock closed unchanged at $0.06.

Commtouch closes $3.19 million deal

Commtouch Software Inc. has wrapped up a $3.19 million private placement of series A preferred shares.

The deal was originally announced Nov. 1 as a $2.1 million offering.

Commtouch sold 6.38 million preferreds at $0.50 each.

The preferreds are convertible into common shares, but full details of the deal were not available Thursday.

"It's a fair deal," said one market source. "It's in line."

"We are very pleased with our latest achievements - not only the signing and closing of these transactions, but also the accelerated pace at which the business is developing," said Gideon Mantel, Commtouch's chief executive officer, in a statement.

"We are signing an increasing number of both distribution partners and enterprise customers. Also, we are expanding our product offerings to include early detection of virus outbreaks, enhancing our strategic value going forward into 2005."

Mountain View, Calif.-based Commtouch develops anti-spam technology.

On Thursday, the company's stock closed down $0.01 at $0.49.

Neutron wraps $3 million offering

Neutron Enterprises Inc. finished a private placement for $3 million through the sale of 3 million shares at $1 each.

"This deal seems obviously under-priced to me," said one market source who had seen the offering. "At $1 per share, it is a major discount to market. It's a dollar to a dollar and a half under what the company's been trading at."

Throughout December, Neutron's stock has traded between $1.70 and $2.45.

Neutron's stock closed up $0.15 at $2.45 on Thursday.

Based in Los Angeles, Neutron is a venture capital and private equity buyout company that acquires technology and businesses. The company plans to use the proceeds the proceeds from the offering to execute its business model for its newly acquired digital signage business, Digital Signage Broadcast Network.

Anvil leads Canadians

Anvil Mining Ltd. led private placement action Thursday with its announcement that it raised C$27.51 million in a private placement.

The company sold 5,240,000 special warrants at C$5.25. The special warrants include one share and one half-share warrant.

Whole warrants in the deal allow for an additional share at C$6.25 each for three years.

The offering was placed through a syndicate of underwriters led by Haywood Securities Inc.

Anvil is a Toronto-based copper and silver production company. It plans to use the proceeds from the offering to fund the acquisition of an interest in the Mutoshi joint venture and to develop both the Mutoshi and the Kinsevere-Nambulwa projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The remainder of the proceeds will be used for working capital.

The company's stock closed down C$0.15 at C$5.50 Thursday.

Red Back plans C$11 million deal

Red Back Mining Inc. announced its plans to raise C$11 million in a private placement Thursday.

The company plans to sell up to 5,789,474 shares at C$1.90 each.

Based in Vancouver, B.C., Red Back is a resources exploration company. It plans to use the proceeds from the private placement for exploration of its Ghanaian projects and for general corporate purposes.

The company's stock closed C$1.70 Dec. 7, its last trade.

Bennett to raise C$10 million

Bennett Environmental Inc. plans to hit the private placement market with a C$10 million offering.

Canaccord Capital Corp. will act as underwriter in the offering, which includes 2.5 million shares at C$4 each.

"Proceeds of this offering will allow InterRent to capitalize on significant accretive acquisition opportunities, several of which have already been announced," said InterRent's president and chief executive officer Michael Newman, in a statement. "We expect the net proceeds from this financing to be fully deployed within the next six months."

Canaccord has the option to increase the size of the offering by 500,000 shares.

Based in Oakville, Ont., Bennett Environmental provides high-temperature treatment services for contaminated soil. The company plans to use the proceeds from the deal for working capital and general corporate purposes.

The company's stock closed unchanged at C$4.06.

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