Accentia secures $24.7 million from convertibles offering; issuance activity soft

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Feb. 28 - Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. led PIPE action on Wednesday, a day after a sharp drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That drop, a sellside market source said, could have kept some issuers away on Wednesday.

"Issuers are probably a bit wary today," he said. "That's understandable but I don't think it's a long-term thing. Once the market rebounds a little, volume should recover."

On Tuesday, the Dow gave up more than 416 points. On Wednesday, however, the stock market rebounded with the Dow gaining 52.39 to close at 12,268.63 and the Nasdaq composite index climbing 8.26 to end at 2,416.15. The Standard & Poor's 500 composite index advanced by 7.78 to settle at 1,406.82.

In the Accentia offering, the company plans to sell to a group of institutional investors $24.7 million of 8% convertible debentures.

The four-year debentures are convertible at $4.00 each, a 4.4% premium to the company's $3.83 closing stock price on Tuesday.

The investors also received warrants for 35% of the shares issuable upon conversion, exercisable at $4.25 each for five years, and warrants for 50% of the shares issuable upon conversion, exercisable at $4.00 each for 60 days after the registration statement is declared effective.

Rodman & Renshaw, LLC was the placement agent for the deal, which is set to close Thursday.

Proceeds will be used for clinical development and for the acquisition of late-stage drug candidates.

Even though the company started posting gains in pre-market trading, its stock took a dip on Wednesday, giving up 4.44%, or 17 cents, to close at $3.66 (Nasdaq: ABPI). In after-hours activity, the stock gained 6 cents.

Tampa, Fla.-based Accentia develops late-stage clinical products, mostly for drugs that have already been approved, in new formulations or indications.

Patch raises $20 million

In other PIPE news Wednesday, Patch International Inc. closed a private placement for $20,131,687. The offering comes as oil prices gained 33 cents to end at $61.79 per barrel.

The company sold 8.302 million special warrants at $1.50 each and 4,653,750 flow-through special warrants at $1.65 each.

Of the flow-through warrants, 245,000 were sold on a non-brokered basis.

Each special warrant is exchangeable for a unit of one share and one warrant for one-tenth of a share. The whole warrants are exercisable without any additional consideration.

Canaccord Capital Corp. was the lead agent with Wellington West Capital Markets Inc. as co-agent.

Proceeds will be used for exploration and development of the company's oil and natural gas properties and for working capital.

Patch's stock gained 8.44%, or 19 cents, to end at $2.44 (OTCBB: PTCH).

Patch is an oil and natural gas exploration company based in Vancouver, B.C.

EV Partners stock climbs

In secondary market activity related to the oil sector, EV Energy Partners, LP saw its stock gain 3% on Wednesday, a day after the company wrapped a $98 million offering of limited partnership units.

The stock advanced by $0.8167 to close at $27.6567 (Nasdaq: EVEP). On Tuesday, the stock lost 65 cents to end at $26.84 and dropped another 10 cents in after-hours trading.

Zimmer Lucas Partners, LP; Alerian Capital Management, LLC; GPS Partners LLC; Lehman Brothers MLP Partners, LP; and Swank Capital, LLC bought limited partnership units of EV in the offering at $24.90 each, a 5.7% discount to the average closing price of the company's common units for the 10 trading days ended Feb. 23.

Houston-based EV Energy Partners acquires, produces and develops oil and gas properties.

Blackstone closes PIPE

In other resources offerings, Blackstone Ventures Inc. pocketed C$10.35 million from the sale of 11.5 million units at C$0.90 each.

Each unit consists of one share and one half-share warrant. The full warrants are exercisable at C$1.35 each through Aug. 27, 2008.

Wellington West Capital Markets Inc. is the lead placement agent.

Proceeds will be used for exploration on the company's Scandinavian nickel projects and for working capital.

Blackstone's stock closed unchanged at C$0.90 Wednesday (TSX Venture: BLV).

Based in Vancouver, B.C., Blackstone is a mineral exploration company.

Another mineral explorer, Redcorp Ventures Ltd., priced a C$9,999,990 private placement of 18,181,800 units.

The units - comprised of one share and one half-share warrant - are priced at C$0.55 each. The whole warrants are exercisable at C$0.70 each for one year.

The offering is being placed through a syndicate of agents led by Paradigm Capital Inc.

The placement is set to close March 15.

Proceeds will be used for the development of the company's Tulsequah property in British Columbia. The rest will be used for exploration on the company's Lagoa Salgada property in Portugal and for general corporate purposes.

The company's stock fell by 5.17%, or 3 cents, to finish at C$0.55 (Toronto: RDV).

Redcorp is also based in Vancouver, B.C.

C2C's $3.5 million deal

Moving to the gold sector, C2C Inc. finished a C$3,515,050 offering of units at C$0.35 each.

The units consist of one share and one warrant with each warrant exercisable at C$0.50 through Feb. 27, 2008.

Canaccord Capital Corp. was the placement agent.

Proceeds will be used for property acquisitions, exploration on the company's existing projects and working capital.

C2C's stock fell 3 cents to end at C$0.92 (TSX Venture: CCN).

Montreal-based C2C is a gold and silver exploration company focused on projects in Ecuador and Peru.

GammaCan closes $6.5 million deal

Finally, GammaCan International, Inc. settled an offering of stock for $6.5 million.

The company sold 16.25 million shares at $0.40 apiece.

The investors also received warrants for 16.25 million shares, exercisable at $0.48 each.

T.R. Winston & Co., LLC was the placement agent.

The company's stock got off to a positive start, gaining 10.64%, or 5 cents, by 11:35 a.m. ET. The stock remained at that level and closed at $0.52 (OTCBB: GCAN).

"We are most pleased with the confidence and support shown in the company by our new and existing investors," said Steven Katz, the company's chairman, in a statement. "These funds will enable us to continue the development of VitiGam for the treatment of stage 3 and stage 4 melanoma."

Based in Kiryat Ono, Israel, GammaCan develops treatments for cancer.

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