Stifel Financial closes discounted stock offering; Biomira prices $16.07 million direct offering

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Jan. 27 - Stifel Financial Corp. settled a $26,305,500 private placement with associates of its recently acquired Legg Mason Capital Markets.

The Legg Mason associates bought 1,052,220 shares at $25.00 each and were issued 1,807,610 restricted stock units.

As of Oct. 31, 2005, the company had 10,020,298 outstanding shares.

The price per share was a 37.5% discount to the company's closing stock price of $40.00 on Thursday.

The offering, announced Friday afternoon, pushed the company's stock down 2.2%, or 88 cents, to end at $39.12 (NYSE: SF).

Legg Mason's capital markets group was purchased by Stifel from Citigroup Inc. late last year.

Proceeds of the private placement will be used to increase Stifel's equity capital required to support the combined capital markets business following the acquisition. The rest will be used for future acquisitions and general corporate purposes.

As to the company's earnings, Stifel posted a net income of $4,896,000 for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2005, compared with a net income of $4,257,000 for the same quarter of 2004.

Based in St. Louis, Stifel provides investment advisory and financial services to individual investors, professional money managers, businesses and governments.

Biomira's $16.07 million direct offering

Moving to the biotech sector, Biomira Inc. priced a $16,069,999 direct stock deal on Friday.

The offering includes 10,572,368 units at $1.52 each. The units consist of one share and one quarter-share warrant. The whole warrants allow for the purchase of another share at $2.50 each for 42 months.

When the deal was announced Friday morning, the company's stock took a steep dip, losing 14.53%, or 26 cents, by 11:20 a.m. ET. The stock had fallen another 16.76% to close the day at $0.30 (Nasdaq: BIOM). The stock did gain a penny in after-hours trading.

The shares underlying the units and the warrants will be sold under the company's shelf registration.

The deal is slated to close in the coming days.

Rodman & Renshaw, LLC is the placement agent.

Proceeds will be used for the expansion of the company's development-stage products.

"We have secured important additional funding for the company at a key stage of our development," said Alex McPherson, the company's chief executive officer, in a statement. "After the re-negotiation of our licensing agreement with Merck KgaA of Darmstadt, Germany, for our lead cancer vaccine L-BLP25, we are now free to focus on advancing our follow-on vaccine BGLP40 and to further expand our portfolio of development-stage products."

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company incurred a net loss of $14.6 million, compared with a net loss of $8.6 million for the same period ended Sept. 30, 2004.

Based in Edmonton, Alta., Biomira is a biotechnology company focused on cancer therapies.

Volume grinds to a halt

In the broader private placement market, volume slowed substantially both in the United States and Canada despite both higher stocks and oil prices.

"Just a Friday, I suppose," said one market source of the lighter volume Friday. "Stocks look fine, so I think it's just a bit slower because it's the end of the week."

Oil prices continued to climb for the second straight session, moving up $1.29 to end at $67.45 per barrel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 97.74 Friday to end at 10,907.21; the Nasdaq composite index advanced 21.23 to close at 2,304.23; and the Standard & Poor's 500 composite index ended up 9.89 at 1,283.72.

Valkyries prices C$28.75 million deal

Valkyries Petroleum Corp. led Canadian PIPE news Friday, pricing a C$28.75 million private placement.

The non-brokered offering includes up to 2.5 million shares at C$11.50 each.

The company's stock was up 7.8% by noon Friday after the deal was announced in the morning. By the end of the day, the stock had gained 6.5%, or C$0.75, to close at C$12.30 (TSX Venture: VPC).

Proceeds will be used for exploration and development on the company's properties in Russia. The rest will be used for working capital.

Based in Vancouver, B.C., Valkyries is an upstream oil and natural gas exploration and production company.

In other resources activity, Verena Minerals Corp. priced a C$2.5 million unit offering.

The deal includes up to 12.5 million units at C$0.20 apiece. The units are comprised of one share and one half-share warrant. The full warrants allow for the purchase of another share at C$0.35 each for one year.

Placement agent Dominick & Dominick Securities Inc. has an over-allotment option for 1.25 million additional units.

The company's stock closed up C$0.005, or 2.56%, to close at C$0.20 Friday (TSX Venture: VML).

Toronto-based Verena is a mineral exploration company.

Petrohawk stock gains 3%

Petrohawk Energy Corp.'s stock advanced by more than 3% on Friday after the company priced a $188.5 million stock offering Thursday.

The company's stock climbed 48 cents, or 3.09%, Friday to end at $16.01 (Nasdaq: HAWK). The stock, however, lost 9 cents in after-hours trading.

In the private placement, Petrohawk agreed to sell 13 million shares at $14.50 each on Feb. 1.

After the deal was announced Thursday morning, Petrohawk's stock gained 2.17%.

Based in Houston, Petrohawk is an oil and natural gas exploration company.

HQ Maritime stock climbs 4.7%

Elsewhere, HQ Maritime Industries, Inc.'s stock moved up after suffering a dip on Thursday when the company completed a $5,225,000 private placement of 8% convertible promissory notes.

On Friday, the stock finished up $0.015, or 4.69%, to close at $0.305 (OTCBB: HQSM).

The notes are convertible into common shares at $0.30 each.

Based in Seattle, HQ Maritime Industries develops nutraceutical products made from nontoxic aquatic materials.

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