Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Major Secondary Offerings Keep Coming (ALTH, ATAX, ARYX, APPY, GRS, LINE, SGMO, CAR)

We are seeing more and more waves of secondary offerings continue to hit the street since the stock market has held up. Many stocks are close to near-term highs and it seems they are raising cash in case the opportunity goes away.  Allos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTH), America First Tax Exempt Investors, L.P. (Nasdaq: ATAX), ARYx Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARYX), AspenBio Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: APPY), Gammon Gold, Inc. (NYSE: GRS), LINN Energy, LLC (NASDAQ: LINE), and Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) have all priced secondary offerings.  Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NYSE: CAR) is one of the pending offerings.

Allos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTH) priced a 14 million share secondary offering at $7.10 per share after closing at $7.32 yesterday.  Shares are down under 1% at $7.24 and the 52-week trading range is $3.82 to $9.30.  The market cap before any effects of dilution was listed as $644 million.

America First Tax Exempt Investors, L.P. (Nasdaq: ATAX) priced its secondary offering of 4,200,000 limited partnership interests at $5.05 per unit.  The firm raised approximately $19.95 million in net proceeds after the  payment of fees.  This one is trading up 0.5% at $5.08 and the 52-week trading range is $4.25 to $7.00.

ARYx Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARYX) announced that it has secured $35 million in a committed equity financing facility.  It will sell shares of common stock to Commerce Court Small Cap Value Fund over a 24 month period.  There is a maximum number of shares that can be sold and it is under no obligation to utilize any of the $35 million.  The company is also free to enter into other equity and debt financing transactions.  ARYx shares are down 3% at $3.04 and the market cap here is $83.5 million.

AspenBio Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: APPY) is getting slashed and burned on its secondary offering.  It sold 4,482,609 shares of common stock at $1.70 per share, but that is after a $2.16 close yesterday.  Shares are down 17% at $1.79 on 175,000 shares.  This one is raising cash close to the bottom as the 52-week trading range is $1.05 to $7.78.

Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NYSE: CAR) is under pressure as it has filed to sell some $250 million in convertible senior notes and on word that it intends to simultaneously enter into a warrant transaction to effectively hedge the convertible note sale.  These transactions often see selling, and that is what we are seeing here.  Shares are down 9% at $12.06 today and the market cap ius roughly $1.25 billion.

Gammon Gold, Inc. (NYSE: GRS) could be in the first wave of many smaller gold players to raise cash now that gold is over $1,000 per ounce.  The company announced a $100 million bought deal financing with a syndicate of underwriters including BMO and UBS.  The underwriters agreed to purchase on a bought deal basis some 11.24 million shares of common stock at $8.90 per share.  We have shares down 5.5% at $8.85 on about 1,7 million shares (only 900K on average trading day).

LINN Energy, LLC (NASDAQ: LINE) priced some 7,500,000 units of limited liability company interests at $21.90 per unit.  Net proceeds are approximately $157 million before any overallotments.  This one is down 3.4% at $22.35 and the 52-week trading range is $10.81 to $24.09.  The market cap before the effect of any offering dilution is listed as $2.7 billion.

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO) is getting its wings clipped this morning.  It priced its secondary offering of 3,000,000 shares of common stock at $7.20 per share.  This one has doubled this year and shares are down almost 11% at $7.12 after closing at $8.00 yesterday.  The 52-week trading range is $1.82 to $9.39 and the market cap before any effects of the dilution is listed as $293 million after today’s drop.

As long as the capital markets remain open, we’d expect more and more companies use the strength to raise cash either for acquisitions or for a rainy day.

JON C. OGG

OCTOBER 7, 2009

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