Grill Concepts sets $14.09 million unit offering; MIV Therapeutics secures $12.55 million

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, July 6 - Grill Concepts, Inc. led PIPE news to round out the short week with a $14,092,400 offering of units.

The company will sell 100,031.23 units at $140.88 each to a group of investors that included Good Tasting LLC and Tuscany Oaks Partners I LLC. The units include 20 common shares and warrants for seven shares. The warrants are exercisable at $8.05 each for five years.

Of the shares in the units, 100,000 were sold by shareholder Robert Spivak.

Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. and Roth Capital Partners, LLC were the placement agents.

Proceeds from the deal will be used for an accelerated restaurant expansion program as well as debt reduction. The remainder will be used for working capital.

"The offering strengthens our balance sheet and also allows us to continue executing our previously announced growth program, bringing our Daily Grill and Grill on the Alley restaurant concepts to new geographic locations and expanding within selected existing markets," said Philip Gay, the company's chief executive officer, in a news release.

"We recently signed leases and a management agreement for new Daily Grill restaurants in Austin and North Dallas, Texas; Phoenix, Ariz.; Fresno, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; and Tulsa, Okla. We expect to open at least four new restaurants during 2007, indicative of our accelerating expansion plans."

The company's stock remained unmoved on Friday at $7.11 (Nasdaq: GRIL).

Grill Concepts, based in Los Angeles, operates 26 restaurants in California, Texas, Illinois, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., and Washington State.

Volume 'doing well'

According to one sellsider responding Friday via BlackBerry, PIPE volume has been relatively good, given the fact that it's summer and vacation season.

"I'm on vacation but I have been keeping up remotely here and there," he said. "All things considered, [volume] has been good. People are off but things are still coming in."

MIV's $12.5 million deal

In the biotech sector, a sector some in the market have considered rather hot lately, MIV Therapeutics Inc. announced the pending completion of a $12.5 million offering of units.

A group of institutional investors agreed to buy 25.1 million units of one share and one half-share warrant at $0.50 apiece. Each whole warrant is exercisable at $0.55 for five years.

The deal is set to close July 10.

BMO Capital Markets Corp. was the placement agent.

Proceeds will be used for development of the company's drug-eluting stents, for commercial activities and for general corporate purposes.

MIV's stock gained 5 cents, or 8.62%, to end at $0.63 (OTCBB: MIVT).

MIV, a frequenter of the PIPE market, last raised $4 million from a placement in January. Before that, the company sold $1 million from the sale of 2 million units in December 2006.

Atlanta-based MIV develops drug-delivery systems for cardiovascular stents as well as other implantable medical devices.

mPhase gets equity line

In other PIPE news Friday, mPhase Technologies, Inc. obtained a $6 million private equity credit agreement from Double U Master Fund, LP.

Double U may buy shares of mPhase from time to time, under the agreement, at a 14% discount to the then-current market price.

mPhase may put up to $300,000 of its stock per month under the agreement but is not obligated to draw any minimum amount.

The stock closed unchanged at $0.095 on Friday (OTCBB: XDSL).

mPhase, based in Norwalk, Conn., develops broadband communications products.

FX Energy stock edges up

A day after announcing a $12.945 million registered direct placement of its stock, FX Energy, Inc.'s stock climbed slightly on Friday.

The company's stock gained 2 cents to end the session at $9.15 (Nasdaq: FXEN).

On Thursday, when the deal was announced, the stock closed down 16 cents to end at $9.13.

The company plans to sell shares at $8.63 each, a 7.1% discount to the company's $9.29 closing stock price on Tuesday, to a group of existing institutional investors.

The shares will be sold under the company's shelf registration through placement agent C.K. Cooper & Co.

Proceeds will be used for the expansion and acceleration of the company's exploration program in Poland as well as for general corporate purposes.

Based in Salt Lake City, FX is an oil and natural gas exploration company.

Transition stock drops

In other secondary market activity, Transition Therapeutics Inc.'s stock fell on Friday after the company priced a C$25 million stock offering on Thursday.

The stock gave up 9 cents, or 5.26%, to end at C$1.62 (Toronto: TTH). On Thursday, the company's stock lost 4 cents, or 2.3%, to settle at C$1.71.

The non-brokered deal includes shares at C$1.60 apiece.

The offering will be made to a group of funds managed by Oracle Investment Management Inc., The Invus Group LLC and a large Boston-based investment-management firm.

The offering is set to close on Monday.

Proceeds will be used for clinical studies, research and product development, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Transition, however, must conduct a one-for-nine consolidation of its stock in order to satisfy Nasdaq listing requirements regarding minimum bid price.

Toronto's Transition is a biopharmaceutical company focused on treatments for Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and other disorders.

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