MedMira eyes market expansion with C$5 million placement; LML, Ur-Energy complete stock placements

By Kenneth Lim

Boston, March 26 - MedMira Inc. launched a C$5 million private placement of stock and warrants to fund its aggressive development plans.

Meanwhile, LML Payment Systems Inc. said it completed a $7.2 million private placement of stock to an institutional investor at a sharp discount to market prices.

Ur-Energy Inc. announced a non-brokered flow-through financing deal worth C$2.75 million to fund a summer exploration program.

MedMira satisfied with deal

MedMira said it is selling C$5 million of stock-and-warrant units in a private placement.

The sale will involve units of one common share and one half-share warrants at C$0.26 each. Each whole warrant will be exercisable at C$0.33 for two years.

Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon Ltd. is the agent.

MedMira stock (TSX: MIR) closed at C$0.275 on Wednesday, unchanged from the previous session. The placement stock was priced at a 5.5% discount to market, while the warrants are at an initial 20% premium.

MedMira, a Halifax, N.S.-based developer of in-vitro flow-through diagnostic tests, said the proceeds of the placement will be used to strengthen its market initiatives, to obtain Food and Drug Administration approvals for products, for product development and for general purposes.

"There are several areas that the company is focused in expanding, from a technological as well as a market perspective," MedMira chief executive officer Hermes Chan told Prospect News. "In particular, it's our plan to make additional products available for the U.S. market. We have major plans for the U.S. and global markets as well as for the future growth of the company."

MedMira's products allow for rapid testing of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C.

"We are currently the only commercially available platform that can use only a single drop of blood specimen to diagnose for three different outcomes," Chan said. "Regardless of how wealthy a country is, the question is always, 'Why are we spending three times the cost when we can do one test for three of them?'"

"We certainly have a very strong confidence in the company being a patent holder of the diagnostic technology," he said. "There will be many potential partnerships that we can form in licensing the technology to others as well as being able to bring in other things that can help us penetrate the U.S. and global markets and help us hit the ground running in other markets like India, China and Russia."

The company does not have a firm timetable in terms of how long the new capital infusion will last, but MedMira's plans will not be wholly dependent on the proceeds, Chan said.

"The amount we are looking for is not big - $5 million I think is doable," Chan said. "The $5 million is a very small portion of our plans. It's just to subsidize some of our general operation purposes and for our development plans."

Chan expects the company to seek financing again when its market expansion plans mature.

"When the market is stronger and also when we bring in additional products to market, we will become much more cash flow positive, and then of course our share price will probably rise as well, and at that point we might consider raising again," he said. "We are hoping that with our projected revenues coming in, we should be self sufficient for some time, but when we need to grow we will probably have to raise money again."

The CEO said he was satisfied with the pricing of the deal.

"I think the pricing when you compare to a couple of other deals on the market, they are mainly doing a 20% to 25% discount to the closing," he said. "I think we are in a much better position, really, less than a 10% discount on a 20-day average. Currently the market is looking at only about 5% to 10% premium [for warrants] but C$0.33 is about 20% premium at the current market value."

"So am I totally happy about it? No," Chan said. "Maybe we should have raised it last year, but I guess you can't predict the market. Even the U.S. government doesn't know what the market is doing."

"I think the old saying is there's always no perfect time, especially in a market as unstable as today," he said.

LML Payment raises $7.2 million

LML Payment Systems said it sold $7.2 million worth of stock to an institutional investor in a private placement.

The sale involved 4 million common shares at $1.80 apiece. Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. was the agent.

The sale price was a 45% discount to the Tuesday closing price of LML common stock (Nasdaq: LMLP) at $3.25. LML stock closed at $3.40 on Wednesday, up by 4.48%, or $0.15.

Vancouver, B.C.-based LML, a financial payment processor, did not say how it will use the proceeds of the deal.

"We are pleased to have received this level of support from this institutional fund and anticipate furthering our plans of delivering shareholder value," LML president and CEO Patrick H. Gaines said in a press release.

Ur-Energy completes placement

Ur-Energy said it raised C$2.75 million through a non-brokered private stock placement.

The deal comprised 2.75 million common shares at C$1.00 apiece.

Ur-Energy common stock (TSX: URE) slipped 4.17%, or C$0.08, to close at C$1.84 on Wednesday.

Ur-Energy, a Denver-based uranium exploration and development company, said it will use the proceeds to fund a summer 2008 exploration program at its Bugs project in Canada with seven targets to be drill tested during the year.

"Ur-Energy is excited to move ahead with drill tests located at the head of locally-derived boulder trains on the Bugs Project," Ur-Energy vice president of Canadian exploration Paul Pitman said in a statement.

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