Wolverine Tube secures $50 million from preferreds; energy deals take off as oil stays above $57 per barrel

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Feb. 1 - To kick off the month, Wolverine Tube, Inc. sealed commitments for a $50 million offering of series A convertible preferred stock and up to $25 million from a rights offering that could be as big as $51.1 million.

Elsewhere in the market, oil companies were heading to the PIPE market in a big way after oil prices made a successful comeback this week. On Thursday, prices headed southward, but remained above $57 per barrel. Oil gave up 66 cents Thursday to close at $57.48 per barrel.

A market source based in Vancouver, B.C., said that because oil prices have been recovering, issuers in that sector are feeling a bit better about getting their offerings out.

"Not only that, but now is a good time to [conduct offerings]," he said. "Energy companies are getting a good look at the projects they're going to be working on and what their needs are."

A number of the energy companies are doing flow-through share financings.

"When you're doing projects localized in Canada, it really does help," the market source said, referring to the tax-deferred offerings.

Wolverine's deal

Moving back to the Wolverine Tube offering, the company sold 50,000 shares of series A convertible preferred stock to Plainfield Special Situations Master Fund Ltd. and The Alpine Group, Inc. for $50 million.

News of the deal sent Wolverine Tube's stock up 119.28%, or 99 cents, to settle at $1.82 (Pink Sheets). The deal is part of a larger recapitalization plan that includes a $51.1 million rights offering.

Volume of Wolverine shares traded Thursday also took off with 4,004,804 shares traded compared with the average of 454,702 shares.

The 8% preferreds are convertible into common shares at the lower of $1.10 each or the average closing price of the company's stock for the 10 trading days from the announcement date.

Also, the investors agreed to buy at least $25 million in preferreds as part of a rights offering for up to $51.1 million. The preferreds in the rights offering will be sold under the same terms as the private placement. The commitment from Plainfield and Alpine is on the condition that proceeds from the rights offering are less than $25 million.

Huntsville, Ala.-based Wolverine Tube manufactures copper and copper-alloy tubular products.

Energy offerings led by Pacific

Among the myriad oil deals announced Thursday, Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. led the pack with the closing of an $83,889,025 offering.

Pacific closed the final tranche of the deal for $9,714,040, selling 8,812,129 subscription receipts. The receipts are exchangeable for units of one share and one half-share warrant. The full terms of the units were unavailable Thursday.

D&D Securities Co. and Octagon Capital Corp. were the placement agents.

On Thursday, the company's stock gained 5 cents, or 3.03%, to close at C$1.70 (Toronto: PFE).

Based in Long Beach, Calif., Pacific Energy Resources is an oil and natural gas exploration and development company.

Ausam raises $43 million

Elsewhere in the sector, Ausam Energy Corp. announced it secured $43 million from a private placement Thursday. That offering is set to close Feb. 8.

The company sold 82,139,449 units at $0.5235 each.

The units include one share and one half-share warrant with each whole warrant exercisable at C$0.65 for two years.

Proceeds will be used to pay the cash portion of the company's acquisition of oil and gas leases in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. The leases are expected to cost $35 million, comprised of $15 million in cash and 63,417,143 in stock.

Under the acquisition agreement, Ausam was required to raise at least $45 million in a private placement.

Ausam's stock jumped by 3.77%, or 1.81 cents, Thursday to settle at $0.4981 (Pink Sheets: ASMEF).

Calgary, Alta.-based Ausam is an oil and natural gas exploration company.

Alberta Clipper plans deal

Another energy company, Alberta Clipper Energy Inc., negotiated the terms of a C$17.25 million offering Thursday.

The deal includes up to 2.5 million flow-through shares at C$6.90 apiece.

The placement is slated to close in mid-February.

Proceeds will be used to fund the company's exploration program and for development on the company's pipelines extension project in Trutch, B.C.

The company's stock settled the day down 13 cents at C$5.27 (Toronto: ACN).

Alberta Clipper is based in Calgary, Alta.

Twin Butte prices offering

Twin Butte Energy Ltd. priced a C$12 million offering of 14.635 million flow-through shares Thursday. Those shares are priced at C$0.82 each.

The deal is being offered through a syndicate of underwriters led by Canaccord Capital Corp.

Proceeds will be used for exploration expenses on the company's Canadian properties.

The deal is scheduled to wrap up on Feb. 27.

Twin Butte is also based in Calgary, Alta. The stock closed unchanged at C$0.75 Thursday (TSX Venture: TBE).

Sierra Vista plans C$3 million deal

Finally, Sierra Vista Energy Ltd. released the terms of a C$3,000,600 offering.

That deal includes up to 3.334 million flow-through shares at C$0.90 each.

A syndicate of underwriters led by Dundee Securities Corp. has a greenshoe for up to 1.111 million additional flow-through shares.

The deal is slated to close on Feb. 22.

Sierra Vista's stock slipped by 5 cents, or 6.67%, to close at C$0.70 (TSX Venture: SVR).

American Telecom stock dips

A day after announcing the completion of a $12.5 million private placement of convertible preferred stock, American Telecom Services, Inc.'s stock dropped slightly.

The stock gave up a penny, or 0.23%, to settle at $4.25 (Amex: TES). On Wednesday, when the offering was announced, the stock climbed 6.25%, or 26 cents, to close at $4.26.

American Telecom sold shares of 8% preferred stock at $25,000 each. The preferreds are convertible at $4.25 each.

Based in City of Industry, Calif., American Telecom is a communications services company.

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