Caladrius Bio Jumps on Private Placement Deal

Caladrius Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: CLBS) watched its shares soar on Thursday after the company announced a private placement offering. In terms of the specifics, the company entered into securities purchase agreements with several accredited investors for the sale of 4,449,153 shares of its common stock in private placements of $21 million.

The private placements were priced at $4.72 per share of common stock, which represented the closing price of the company’s common stock on September 13.  These private placements do not include any stock purchase warrants or any future price adjustments.

Note that Caladrius has a pre-existing relationship with each of these investors, including its now largest institutional shareholder and its strategic collaborator, Sanford Health, one of the largest health systems in the United States. Sanford, which includes Sanford Research, a nonprofit research organization focused on finding a cure for type 1 diabetes, has agreed to invest $5 million in this transaction.

At the same time as these private placements, Caladrius entered into a definitive agreement with Aspire Capital, providing for the sale of 847,458 shares at the aforementioned price.

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According to the release:

Each of the investors in the private placements will invest pro rata in two tranches: (i) $12.6 million is expected to close- on or about September 19, 2016, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions, and (ii) $8.4 million is expected to close upon the enrollment of 70 patients in the Company’s Phase 2 Sanford Project: T-Rex Study clinical trial for CLBS03 and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. The Company presently anticipates that it could achieve the enrollment of 70 patients as early as mid-2017.

The company intends to use the net proceeds from the transactions for execution of its T-Rex Study, principal and interest payments on its loan from Oxford Finance, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Shares of Caladrius were last seen up about 16% at $5.03, with a consensus analyst price target of $32.67 and a 52-week trading range of $4.00 to $19.20.

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