Amarin's $12.75 million stock sale leads American private placements

By Sheri Kasprzak

Atlanta, Oct. 7 - In a much lighter day for private placement deals than earlier in the week, a London-based neuroscience company traded in the United States finished up a $12.75 million deal Thursday.

Amarin Corp. sold 13,448,546 of ordinary shares to a group of new and existing investors and managers.

The London-based neuroscience company plans to use the proceeds from the deal to move forward with clinical trials for a Huntington's disease treatment.

The purchase price of $0.947 per share was based on the average closing price of Amarin's American Depositary shares on Nasdaq for the 10 trading days ending Oct. 6.

On the purchase of Elan Corp. plc's equity interest in Amarin by an individual investor, $3 million of the outstanding $5 million loan notes acquired were converted into ordinary shares immediately following the closing of the private placement. The debt was converted at a price of $1.104, a 16.6% premium to the private placement price.

The remaining $2 million in loan notes can be converted into ordinary shares at the option of the holder at the offer price of any subsequent equity financing.

The company had planned to raise $10 million in the private placement, according to chief executive officer Rick Stewart. However, investor interest was so great that the company upsized the deal to $12.75 million.

"We limited the fundraising to $12.75 million in order to restrict shareholder dilution, even though we had demand in excess of this level," Stewart said.

Amarin's stock ended up $0.05 at $1.25 Thursday.

Logistical Support closes $2 million deal

Logistical Support Inc. finished up a $2 million private placement Thursday, the company said.

The company, based in Chatsworth, Calif., has agreed to sell 10 million shares of common stock to select institutional investors at $0.20 per share.

Hunter World Markets acted as the placement agent on the deal and will be paid a $290,000 fee along with three million shares of common stock and a five-year warrant to purchase eight million shares of common stock at $0.25 per share.

Logistical has agreed to register the shares within 45 days of the closing date.

According to the terms of the deal, if Logistical's closing stock price is less than $0.30 for 20 consecutive trading days within a nine-month period after the registration statement, the company must make a one-time issuance of five million additional shares to investors for no additional consideration.

Logistical's stock closed up $0.29 Thursday at $2.09.

Big deal in the works

Meanwhile, in the wake of Allegheny Energy's $151.5 million private placement of stock earlier in the week, another big deal could be on the way.

An investment banker at an international firm said Thursday that his shop is "working on a large high profile PIPE right now," but could not elaborate on the specific size, timing or company involved.

C$15 million Canadian deal

Lorus Therapeutics Inc. closed the first tranche of a C$15 million private placement of convertible secured notes with The Erin Mills Investment Corp. Thursday.

The company issued C$5 million in five-year convertible notes to Erin Mills. The notes mature Oct. 5, 2009.

The issue is convertible at a conversion price of C$1 per share of common stock, representing a 33% premium to the Oct. 5, 2004 closing price on the Toronto Exchange.

Erin Mills has agreed to buy two additional secured convertibles at C$5 million each, due Jan. 14, 2005 and April 15, 2005, assuming no defaults on debt held by Erin Mills or adverse business plan changes for Lorus.

The deal, which is secured by Lorus' assets, bears interest at Prime plus 100 basis points.

Lorus paid Erin Mills a C$600,000 fee plus three million warrants, two million of which will be held in escrow, exercisable into common shares. Erin Mills was also issued one million warrants to buy common shares, also to be held in escrow. The exercise price of the warrants is C$1 per share and expires five years from the date of issuance.

Lorus, a biopharmaceutical company based in Vancouver, B.C., plans to use the proceeds from the private placement for research and the development of ongoing operations.

The company's stock closed up C$0.01 at C$0.76 Thursday.

Resverlogix hits market with C$9 million private placement

Biotechnology company Resverlogix hit the private placement market Thursday with a C$9 million financing with First Associates Investments Inc. as lead agent in a syndicate.

The other agents in the syndicate include Haywood Securities Inc., Sprott Securities Inc. and Jennings Capital Inc.

The equity private placement will proceed on a best-effort basis, up to C$9 million. The deal is expected to close around Nov. 9.

Resverlogix is a Calgary, Alta.-based biotechnology company that develops biopharmaceuticals.

The company's stock closed unchanged Thursday at C$3.65.

Blue Parrot enters market with C$2.5 million

Blue Parrot Energy entered the private placement market with a C$2.5 million issue.

The deal consists of five million flow-through common shares at C$0.45 per share and up to one million equity units at C$0.40 per unit. Each equity unit will consist of one common share and one warrant, each allowing the holder to purchase common share at C$0.60 per share for two years.

Blue Parrot is a Calgary, Alta., oil and natural gas exploration, development and production company.

The deal is expected to close by Nov. 15.

The company's stock closed down C$0.15 at C$0.355 Thursday.

The proceeds from the private placement will be used for exploration and development drilling, as well as general corporate purposes, the company said.

Expatriate prices C$12 million brokered deal

Expatriate Resources priced a C$12 million brokered private placement, the company announced Thursday.

The co-lead agents on the deal are Paradigm Capital Inc. and First Associates Investments Inc. Dundee Securities Corp. and McFarlane Gordon Inc. also acted as agents in the deal.

The offering consists of C$4 million in units priced at C$0.32 per unit, with each unit containing one common share and one-half share purchase warrant. Each full warrant entitles the buyer to purchase one common share for C$0.40 per share from 12 months from closing or at C$0.45 per share during the period 12 to 24 months after closing.

The offering is set to close Oct. 21.

The agents will receive 7% of the gross proceeds of the offering and Expatriate has granted the agents compensation options entitling them, for 24 months from the closing date, to buy a number of units at the issue price equal to 10% of the number of units and flow-through shares issued in the offering.

Expatriate, a Vancouver, B.C.-based resources mining company, plans to use the proceeds from the offering for exploration, feasibility studies and test mining.

Expatriate's stock closed down C$0.03 at C$0.37 Thursday.

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