Onyx Pharmaceuticals concludes $150 million equity line; Rancher Energy wraps $6.64 million PIPE

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Sept. 29 - Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. led PIPE activity to wind down the week Friday as stocks slipped and oil prices nudged their way back upward.

Meanwhile, despite a dip in gold prices Friday, higher gold prices overall pushed a small slate of offerings in that sector this week, according to one sellside market source.

"Will it last?" he asked. "It depends on what gold does. So far, so good and I don't think one down day is going to hurt too much. I think we've kind of given up hope that gold is going to get to $700 [per ounce] this year, so anything over $600 is pretty acceptable."

Among the gold offerings announced this week was a $2.2 million convertible debenture deal settled by Newgold, Inc. Those debentures, purchased by Cornell Capital Partners, LP, are convertible at the lesser of $0.4735 or 95% of the lowest volume weighted average price for the 30 trading days before conversion.

The 8% debentures are due Sept. 26, 2009.

Sacramento, Calif.-based Newgold is a gold explorer.

Littleton, Colo.-based Aurelio Resource Corp. closed a $1.6 million private placement of 4 million shares on Friday.

Proceeds will be used to develop the company's copper resource and to explore for gold on the company's Gavilanes porphyry gold deposit in Mexico. The remainder will be used for general corporate purposes.

Aurelio is a gold and copper exploration company.

On Thursday, Arizona Star Resource Corp. priced a C$6,012,500 stock offering, and on Friday, the stock gained a penny to close at C$10.01 (TSX Venture: AZS).

When the deal priced Thursday, the stock lost 5 cents to close at C$10.00.

In the placement, the company intends to sell shares at C$9.25 each, an 8% discount to the C$10.05 closing stock price Wednesday.

Toronto-based Arizona Star is a gold and copper exploration and development company.

Buffalo Gold Ltd. settled a PIPE earlier this week for more than $20 million.

On Friday, the company's stock lost 3 cents to settle at $2.07 (TSX Venture: BUF). The stock fell by 20 cents to close at $2.10 on Thursday.

As previously reported, the company sold units of one share and one half-share warrant at $1.75 each.

Onyx's equity line

Back to the $150 million equity line from Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Azimuth Opportunity Ltd. agreed to buy shares of Onyx over the next two years at a discount to the volume weighted average price of the stock over 10 consecutive trading days before a draw.

The discount will range between 3.3% and 5.05% of the VWAP over the 10-day pricing period.

Reedland Capital Partners was the placement agent.

Proceeds will be used for the commercialization and development of the company's Nexavar product for kidney cancer as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.

On Friday, the company's stock dropped by 37 cents, or 2.19%, to settle at $17.29 (Nasdaq: ONXX) after trading between $16.78 and $17.88.

"You gotta love it," said one sellside trader of the offering. "Volume was almost four times the average volume with no news until this [equity line] hit the wire after close. It doesn't get much better than this."

Volume climbed to 2,418,614 shares traded, compared to the average 804,922 shares.

Emeryville, Calif.-based Onyx develops therapies that target the molecular mechanisms implicated in cancer. Its lead candidate, Nexavar, is for advanced kidney cancer.

Rancher raises $6.6 million

Looking to the oil sector, Rancher Energy Corp. settled a private placement for $6,647,202 as oil prices rebounded slightly on Friday.

Oil prices edged up by 15 cents on Friday to close the week at $62.91 per barrel after a week of losses that pushed stocks up substantially.

On Friday, stocks slipped with the Dow Jones Industrial Average giving up 39.38 to close at 11,679.07 and the Nasdaq composite index falling 11.59 to end at 2,258.43. The Standard & Poor's 500 composite index lost 3.30 to close at 1,335.85.

Rancher sold 13,294,405 units at $0.50 each to foreign investors between July 31 and Friday.

The units consist of one share and one warrant. The whole warrants are exercisable at $0.75 each for the first year and at $1.00 each for the second year.

After the offering was announced Friday evening, the stock gained 2.86%, or 5 cents, to end the day at $1.80 (OTCBB: RNCH).

Denver-based Rancher is an oil and natural gas exploration and development company.

Blackhawk stock climbs

Moving to secondary market action, Blackhawk Fund's stock gained 100% on Friday after settling a $10 million committed equity line with Dutchess Private Equities Fund II, LP.

The stock gained a penny Friday to close at $0.02 (OTCBB: BHWF). The stock fell by a penny on Thursday when the deal closed to end at $0.01.

In the Blackhawk offering, Dutchess agreed to buy shares over the next three years at a price equal to 93% of the lowest closing bid price for the five trading days after notice of a draw.

Blackhawk Fund, based in Carson City, Nev., provides corporate counseling services to private and public corporations.

MathStar stock rebounds

After settling a $12.6 million stock deal earlier this week, MathStar, Inc.'s stock climbed on Friday after closing down on Thursday.

The stock advanced by 3 cents to end the day at $4.40 (Nasdasq: MATH) on Friday. On Thursday, the stock gave up 2.89%, or 13 cents, to settle at $4.37, and on Wednesday, when the deal closed, the stock lost 50 cents to close at $4.50.

In the offering, the company announced that it plans to sell roughly 3.1 million shares. The precise number of shares could not be determined.

Piper Jaffray & Co. is the placement agent for the offering, which is scheduled to close in the coming days.

Based in Hillsboro, Ore., MathStar develops programmable logic chips called Field Programmable Object Arrays.

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