We are seeing more and more waves of secondary offerings continue to hit the Street since the stock market has held up. Many stocks are close to near-term highs and it seems they are raising cash in case the opportunity goes away.  Allos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTH), America First Tax Exempt Investors, L.P. (Nasdaq: ATAX), ARYx Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARYX), AspenBio Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: APPY), Gammon Gold, Inc. (NYSE: GRS), LINN Energy, LLC (NASDAQ: LINE), and Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) have all priced secondary offerings.  Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NYSE: CAR) is one of the pending offerings.

Allos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTH) priced a 14 million share secondary offering at $7.10 per share after closing at $7.32 yesterday.  Shares are down under 1% at $7.24 and the 52-week trading range is $3.82 to $9.30.  The market cap before any effects of dilution was listed as $644 million.

America First Tax Exempt Investors, L.P. (Nasdaq: ATAX) priced its secondary offering of 4,200,000 limited partnership interests at $5.05 per unit.  The firm raised about $19.95 million in net proceeds after the  payment of fees.  This one is trading up 0.5% at $5.08 and the 52-week trading range is $4.25 to $7.00.

ARYx Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARYX) announced that it has secured $35 million in a committed equity financing facility.  It will sell shares of common stock to Commerce Court Small Cap Value Fund over a 24 month period.  There is a maximum number of shares that can be sold and it is under no obligation to utilize any of the $35 million.  The company is also free to enter other equity and debt financing transactions.  ARYx shares are down 3% at $3.04 and the market cap here is $83.5 million.

AspenBio Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: APPY) is getting slashed and burned on its secondary offering.  It sold 4,482,609 shares of common stock at $1.70 per share, but that is after a $2.16 close yesterday.  Shares are down 17% at $1.79 on 175,000 shares.  This one is raising cash close to the bottom as the 52-week trading range is $1.05 to $7.78.

Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NYSE: CAR) is under pressure as it has filed to sell some $250 million in convertible senior notes and on word that it intends to simultaneously enter into a warrant transaction to effectively hedge the convertible note sale.  These transactions often see selling, and that is what we are seeing here.  Shares are down 9% at $12.06 today and the market cap ius roughly $1.25 billion.

Gammon Gold, Inc. (NYSE: GRS) could be in the first wave of many smaller gold players to raise cash now that gold is over $1,000 per ounce.  The company announced a $100 million bought deal financing with a syndicate of underwriters including BMO and UBS.  The underwriters agreed to buy on a bought deal basis some 11.24 million shares of common stock at $8.90 per share.  We have shares down 5.5% at $8.85 on about 1,7 million shares (only 900K on average trading day).

LINN Energy, LLC (NASDAQ: LINE) priced some 7,500,000 units of limited liability company interests at $21.90 per unit.  Net proceeds are about $157 million before any overallotments.  This one is down 3.4% at $22.35 and the 52-week trading range is $10.81 to $24.09.  The market cap before the effect of any offering dilution is listed as $2.7 billion.

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO) is getting its wings clipped this morning.  It priced its secondary offering of 3,000,000 shares of common stock at $7.20 per share.  This one has doubled this year and shares are down almost 11% at $7.12 after closing at $8.00 yesterday.  The 52-week trading range is $1.82 to $9.39 and the market cap before any effects of the dilution is listed as $293 million after today’s drop.

As long as the capital markets stay open, we’d expect more and more companies use the strength to raise cash either for acquisitions or for a rainy day.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 7, 2009

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