Flood of Secondary Offerings Coming To Market

The market is about to get a flood of secondary offerings.  Some are post-IPO shares, others are established companies raising cash.

Bazaarvoice, Inc. (NASDAQ: BV) has filed to sell up to 1.7 million shares for the company and up to 6.8 million shares for backers, holders, and insiders. The book-runners are Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities, and Credit Suisse Securities (USA); co-managers are BMO Capital Markets, Pacific Crest Securities, and Piper Jaffray. This underwriting group will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,275,000 shares of common stock from Bazaarvoice.

Elli Mae, Inc. (NYSE: ELLI) is unloading more shares close to the top.  Some 3.101 million shares are being sold at a price of $17.00 per share after a $17.03 close and versus a 52-week range of $3.46 to $17.62. Ellie Mae is offering 3,000,000 shares of common stock and certain of its directors and executive officers are offering 101,638 shares of common stock. The book-running managers are William Blair & Company and JMP Securities; co-managers are Needham & Company, Oppenheimer & Co., D.A. Davidson, and Wunderlich Securities. Ellie Mae has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 465,245 shares.

Energy Transfer Partners LP (NYSE: ETP) is a $10.5 billion MLP and it has filed for a 13.5 million unit secondary offering that will raise close to $600 million.  The common units are indicated down 4.3% at $43.99 against a 52-week range of $38.08 to $51.00. The book-runners are BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Wells Fargo Securities; co-managers are Raymond James and RBC Capital Markets.  An overallotment option of up 2.025 million units is being granted to the syndicate.

Gas Natural Inc. (NYSEMKT: EGAS) is a natural gas utility company serving approximately 70,000 customers in seven states and it has priced a public offering of 700,000 shares of its common stock at $10.10 per share.  The offering is for shares owned by Chairman/CEO Richard M. Osborne and the Company will not receive any proceeds from the sale. He has also granted Janney Montgomery Scott, the underwriter, a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 100,000 shares of common stock on the same terms and conditions to cover over-allotments.  How nice of him. What is interesting is that this is at a premium to Wednesday’s closing bell price of $9.92 but shares had been at $10.60 before the disclosure of the coming sale.

Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX) was looking like it had good news after spending $20 million to acquire another one-third interest in operating plants.  As a result the ethanol producer is getting an extended credit maturity from 2013 to 2016 and a $5 million boost.  Then the company issued a second release that it intends to offer units consisting of shares of common stock and warrants in an underwritten public offering.  Shares are down a whopping 31% at $0.36 this morning but the price is low enough that most do not even track the company any longer.

Splunk, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) has come well of its highs since its IPO and now the company is prepping to unload shares into a lock-up expiration.  This registration statement was for up to $300 million and all of the shares will be sold by existing shareholders (backers, holders, and insiders).  Book-running managers are listed as Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Securities, J.P. Morgan Securities, and BofA Merrill Lynch; UBS Securities, Pacific Crest Securities, and Cowen and Company will be the co-managers.

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JON C. OGG