PIPES are closing … as financings respond to depreciated value
Private investment in public entity (PIPE) healthcare related financing are still happening … very slowly but are not dead.
The instability that has rocked the investment banking industry over the past two years has maintained the “sweet spot” for the existing PIPE firms. Over the past six (6) months, 251 (215 registered PIPES and 36 described as offerings) transactions included 161 closings and 90 filed with …
approximately 145 geographically encompassing the US and Canada while the EU had 31, Asia-Pacific 72 and 3 in Africa/Middle East. Rodman & Renshaw, LLC has maintained its leading position in PIPE transaction deal volume during Q1-2/09. Rodman & Renshaw completed 29 transactions raising a total of $420.6M across a broad platform of technologies in Q1-2/09.
The most active healthcare buyers have been: Yorkville Advisors LLC (3), Bay City Capital LLC (2), BioTech Capital Limited (ASX:BTC) (2), Majedie Asset Management Limited (2), New Enterprise Associates (2), Titan Bioventures Management Pty Ltd (2), Venrock (2), Vicis Capital (2), LLC, Accelmed Fund (1) and Al Rajhi Holdings W.L.L (1). Interesting alternative financing sources included Duchess Capital Management, LLC , Alta Partners, Nextech Venture Ltd, LFB Biotechnologies S.A.S.U. and Victoria Squares Ventures, Inc (Source: Capital IQ).
Another lightly used vehicle, rights offering are few due to share pricing constraints and are defined as offerings of common stock to investors who currently hold shares which entitle them to buy subsequent issues at a discount from the offering price included: Generex (GNBT), Pharmacyclics (PCYC), MigenixI (TSX: MGI; OTC: MGIFF).
The Bottom Line: Gloom still pervades the market.
