Sequenom Raising Capital (SQNM)

Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) became a very painful stock for many investors after the problems surfaced over its test results.  While things have recovered substantially at the company, pressure has renewed on management now that the company has announced a stock sale to raise capital.

No formal share count nor financial terms were made available in the filings.  Its filing of a shelf registration made back in September was for any mix of debt, equity, and other securities for up to $150 million.

As far as a use of proceeds: “We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, which may include research and development expenses, such as expenses related to our validation studies for our Trisomy 21 test, capital expenditures, working capital, and general administrative expenses. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire or invest in complementary businesses, products and technologies. Although we have no specific agreements, commitments or understandings with respect to any acquisition, we evaluate acquisition opportunities and engage in related discussions with other companies from time to time.”

Jefferies & Company is the sole book-running manager; and Lazard Capital Markets and Piper Jaffray are listed as the two co-managers in this public secondary offering.

The company did note that this shares sale is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance that it will come.  Generally, these offerings are made within days or hours of an open-ended offering of this sort.  Sequenom has already filed a shelf registration statement with the SEC and that was declared effective on October 5, 2010.

Shares of Sequenom closed down 0.7% at $6.81 today on rather light trading volume of close to 1.1 million shares.  The after-hours session has shares down more than 6% around $6.40 versus a 52-week range of $3.82 to $8.65.

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JON C. OGG